Epilogue: Nothing Gold Can Stay
It had been two months. Ponyboy still missed Johnny and Dally, but not so much as before. It was like their death was a band-aid over a scab, and he had gotten much more used to the band-aid.
He and Suze were still going together, not exactly steady, but not exactly irregular either. They fought often, mostly over Johnny and Dally when Ponyboy was missing them the most and needed someone to take it out on.
Soda had gotten over Sandy once, and he did it again. His newfound anger at her made it easier this time around. He would never truly forget her, Ponyboy knew, but it was a start.
Suze, meanwhile, had no ghosts to bother her any longer, at least for now. She was happy, even when she was fighting with Ponyboy, and her life seemed to be at last perfect.
But this was Suze we're talking about. Something, she knew, just had to come along and screw it all up.
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Johnny and Dally's souls were free. They, like so many others, joined the never-ending cycle of reincarnation.
"Whatever happened to nirvana and being free forever?" Dally groused. "And why is this darn line so darn long?"
"Since when do you say 'darn'?" Johnny laughed.
"Believe me, Johnnycake, if I could swear, I would," Dally said miserably. "But whenever I try to it comes out clean language!"
"Well, we're just going to have to wait our turn."
"Will we be together?" Dally wanted to know.
"Well, according to this receipt we got at the Pearly Gates," Johnny said, glancing it over, "we're gonna come back as twin boys. We won't remember anything about our past lives or anything as we grow up, but we might have some lagging memory in our very early years."
"What were we before we were Johnny and Dally?" Dally wanted to know.
"You're never gonna believe this," Johnny chuckled.
"Try me," Dally said, leaning over to look over Johnny's shoulder. "No way! We were squirrels?"
"Come on, Dally, it's our turn!"
"Wait, what did you say we were going to turn up as?"
"Twins. According to this, our souls will always cross paths within our lifetimes."
"Tuff! See you, then, Johnnycake!"
"Okay, Dally."
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Someone knocked on the Curtis door. "It's open!" Ponyboy hollered even as he ran to get it. Only one person ever bothered to knock.
"Hey, Suze," he greeted cheerfully. His grin vanished at the sight of her face. "What's going on?"
"We're moving," Suze said. A cab was already pulling up to her house, and her family loading everything in the back.
Ponyboy blinked at her. "I'm sorry, did you just say—?"
"Moving," she confirmed grimly. "To Philadelphia."
"WHAT?" Ponyboy screamed, making her jump. "But you just got here!"
"I know," Suze sighed. "But mom doesn't want Charlie growing up in a bad neighborhood, and Ryan just closed a deal on a place in Philly."
Ponyboy's throat closed. She was calling it Philly, like she lived there already. "C-can I write you?" he stammered.
"I wrote down my address," Suze said, handing him a sheet of torn notebook paper. "I know your address. I'll write you, too, and call when I can."
"You'd better," Ponyboy threatened, but it came out distraught. Suze smiled. Ponyboy was shocked to see the tears in her eyes.
"It's only a couple of years, right?" she said. "I'll be back here, you just wait and watch."
"Or I'll be there," Ponyboy said. They stood there awkwardly, with Suze's mother screaming for her in the background.
Impulsively, Suze threw her arms around him briefly. "I'll never forget you," Ponyboy whispered in her ear.
"I can't forget you," she whispered back. "You're gold, Ponyboy. Stay that way."
"SUSANNAH!" her mother screamed. "Let's GO!"
Reluctantly, Suze broke away from Ponyboy and walked to the cab. She turned and looked at him one last time before she got in the cab and it sped away.
"Tough break, Ponyboy," Soda said from behind him.
Ponyboy shook his head. "It ain't over," he insisted.
"Okay," Soda said, and left him standing there.
Ponyboy didn't know how long he stood there. Long enough for the sun to set. As it got dark, he turned to go inside, and one last thought popped into his head:
Nothing gold can stay.
Suze had been gold. And so of course she couldn't stay.
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