Chapter 5
Sodapop Curtis stood in the lobby of the Holiday Inn looking at his daughter.
He knew she was his the moment he saw her. It wasn't just the hair, that peculiar color of red-gold that he and Ponyboy shared. It wasn't the small bump on her nose that his mother, Diane, had had. It wasn't even her long legs, representing Darry's height.
It was that she was reading. She was lost in the book in her lap, oblivious to everything around her, and as she read, she was fiddling with her earlobe. Ponyboy did that, he always had. Will did it. Liz did it. Even little Abby did.
Maureen was a Curtis.
Soda stood there, tears welling his eyes, hating Sandy Hinton more than he'd ever hated anyone in his life.
When Maureen looked up, there he was: a middle-aged man in jeans, work boots and a checkered shirt, his hands jammed in his pockets. She rose slowly. He was handsome and rough and rugged, but in a good way. He looked … he looked kind.
Maureen took a hesitant step toward him, not knowing what to do. But Soda knew. He had years of practice, beginning with Ponyboy and now with Shayne and Liz. He opened his arms.
Maureen closed the distance between them and hugged him before she could think twice about it. "Oh my God," she breathed. "It is you."
"I didn't know," he whispered into her hair. "I shouldn't have believed her. I'm so sorry."
They didn't go out to breakfast. Instead, they went across the street to a convenience store and got a couple of Pepsis, a box of doughnuts and a cup of bad coffee, and went up to Maureen's room. It was a mess – clothes flung all over, the blankets halfway off the bed, books and tissues and CDs scattered on the night stand. It made Soda smile. It looked very much like the condition of the room he and Pony had shared as boys.
They settled in silence, but it was a comfortable quiet. Maureen cleared off the table (more books and CDs) and Soda set out a donut for each of them.
Finally, he said, "What did you want to ask me?"
Maureen made a noise, somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "Oh, God. Everything. When's your birthday, what's your favorite color, what's your job – everything."
"I'll be 46 on October 12. Green. I'm a mechanic by trade – I own a garage and gas station." Soda smiled. "That was easy. Do I get to ask too?"
"Of course." Maureen took a long swallow of coffee. "I've got caffeine, I'm ready. Go ahead."
But Soda didn't know where to begin. So instead of asking her anything, he started to talk, telling her quietly about falling in love with Sandy, and his parents dying, how Sandy had come to be pregnant and how Soda had lost both his girl and the possibility of being Maureen's father. Maureen told him about growing up in Florida, about her parents and her brothers, and about wanting to know where she came from.
"Your parents," Soda said, "do they know you're here?"
"My father paid for my plane ticket," Maureen answered. She blushed. "That's totally weird. My father paid for my tickets so I could find my father. But yeah, they know. They're fine with it. They really understood, and they helped me look for you guys. My brother Danny thinks I'm crazy, he keeps saying that Mom and Dad are my only parents, but he's their blood kid, so he doesn't get it. My brother Joe is probably hanging by the phone, waiting for me to call. I'm supposed to report to him on how this went. He's a little protective."
"I know how that goes, from both sides," Soda said. "Annoying as hell, but you kind of grow to like it."
Maureen looked at him intently. Soda was startled by how much her eyes were like Sandy's. "My mother kept telling me I should ask about genetic diseases and all that."
"There's not so much to tell," Soda said. "My parents didn't live long enough to be any kind of sick. Darry's near 50 but he can still carry two bundles of roofing up a ladder. We're all fairly healthy. I think my father's mother died of some sort of cancer, but I was pretty small."
Maureen nodded thoughtfully. "Have you told anyone about me?"
"My younger brother."
She looked at his left hand. "Not your wife?"
"Her name is Corrine. No, not yet. I wanted to see you first. I … I mean, I thought …"
"You wanted to be sure," Maureen interjected. "I know. I did too. Um … do I – do you have children?"
Soda pulled his wallet out of his pocket. "You have a brother and a sister." He flipped through the plastic windows. "That's Shayne, he's 15, and Liz is 12. That's Cory. Pony has three little girls and Darry has a son."
Maureen stared at Liz's photo for a long time, then got up to find her purse. She pulled out an envelope of pictures and, finding the one she wanted, laid it next to Soda's wallet. It was her seventh grade school picture. Liz had green eyes and Corinne's chestnut hair, but the resemblance in the faces was startling.
Tears were running down Maureen's face. "I never saw anyone who looked like me before," she whispered. "Not unless it was a coincidence." She looked up. "Can I meet them?"
"I expect so," Soda answered. "Let me talk to Corrine and tell them first, okay?"
"And your brothers, too?"
"I think that would be fine," Soda said. He glanced at his watch and stood up. "I need to get home. I wasn't planning on being gone this long."
Maureen felt a momentary stab of panic. Soda smiled at her, then scribbled on a piece of paper. "Here. This is our phone number. And this is the number of the garage I have. You can usually reach me one place or the other. And you have Darry's number, too."
"What do we do now?"
"Why, we get to know each other, that's all." Soda said. He grinned at her crookedly. "And I suppose we hope we like each other."
"I already know I like you," Maureen blurted out.
Soda laughed. "Why, darlin', I like you, too," he answered, giving her a tight hug before he left.
