Chapter 9
Suzanne followed Corinne into the kitchen to get more chicken fried rice. "You know," she said in a low voice, "I feel like this should be weird, but it's not."
"I know," Corinne agreed. "But everyone is still being polite. It's like that MTV show the kids like – what happens when everyone stops being polite and starts getting real?"
"Yeah. I like Maureen, though."
"I do, too," Corinne answered. "It's hard to think of her as Soda's daughter, though. Or my step-daughter. Weird. We'll get used to it, I expect."
"She looks just like Lizzy," Suzanne said. "And she's got that odd hair. You couldn't deny her if you wanted to."
Corinne glanced into the dining room, where Darry and Soda were in the middle of some animated conversation. Maureen was listening, rapt. "Oh, I don't think anyone wants to do that," she said. She looked at the other end of the table, where Shayne, sitting between Will and Melanie, was slumped over his moo goo gai pan. "With one notable exception."
"He'll come around," Suzanne said.
"I hope so," Corinne answered. "Soda's already talking to me about Thanksgiving and Christmas and sort of splitting her with her family. He needs to slow down a little because it's freaking Shayne out. It's like he's trying to make up for 28 years as fast as he can."
Maureen was puzzled as well, though pleasantly so. She had done a lot of thinking and soul searching before deciding to look for her first family and had been prepared for dead-ends, denials and rejections. She had not considered that she might be welcomed with open arms. Of course, Maureen had no idea the Curtises had always had an open door policy in their house, even before their parents died, and with brothers who were not blood related, but were brothers nonetheless.
"Is Kissimmee close to Orlando?" Liz was asking as Corinne and Suzanne sat back down.
"Yeah, less than an hour," Maureen said. "I was tired of DisneyWorld by the time I was ten."
"We've been to Disney a couple of times," Liz said. "My dad's friend – um, Dad's friend, I mean -- works there. He sends us passes."
Some people run away to join the circus. Two-Bit Mathews ran away to DisneyWorld. His intent was simply to spend a drunken week meeting the Mouse, but he liked it so much he sobered up and stayed on. He was currently the assistant director of character relations, but still actually got into the Mickey costume at least once a week, just for the love of it. He had a wife and two little boys and the previous year, the Curtis boys and Curly Shepard, of all people, had helped Mrs. Mathews pack up her house to move in with Two-Bit and his family. Ponyboy often said that Mickey saved Two-Bit's life.
"It would be funny if we were there at the same time," Liz said.
"It would be," Maureen agreed, "but probably not, since by the time you guys were going I was in high school. At least."
"What was your first word?" Soda asked suddenly.
Maureen smiled at him. "Tiger. She was the cat."
"What's your family like?" Darry asked. "Do you get on with them?"
"Pretty much. I have two older brothers who I really love but they drive me crazy trying to protect me and tell me what to do."
"Yeah, I know that feeling," Ponyboy said, and everyone laughed.
"My parents are pretty terrific," Maureen said. "I can't imagine what it would have been like to lose them young, like you guys did. They helped me with this whole search thing, too, which I guess doesn't happen so often. They've been really supportive, and really glad it's turning out okay." She looked at Soda. "And they're really my family, I want you to know that. I mean, I want to know you guys, but they're my parents."
"Of course they are," Soda said gently.
Shayne dropped his fork on his plate. "Then why are you here?" he burst out. "If your family is so wonderful, what are you doing here? What do you want?"
"Shayne Patrick, you watch your tone," Soda said, calmly but firmly. "I will not have you speaking to Maureen like that."
Shayne turned to Pony. "You see?" he whined.
"It's all right," Maureen said.
"No, it sure ain't," Soda said stiffly. "His mother and I raised him better than that."
Shayne felt his face color and was embarrassed in spite of himself.
Maureen looked at Shayne him steadily. "I want to know."
"You want to know what?" he countered. "You haven't been here – you were with your own family. What can we tell you?"
"What time were you born?" she asked abruptly.
"What time … what?" Shayne stared at her, confused. "Um, 11:18 in the morning. What does that have to do --"
"I am 28 years old and I didn't know what time I was born until last week," she interrupted. "Don't you think there's something wrong with that?"
"I --"
"Look at this." Maureen flipped her ponytail over her shoulder and held a handful of hair. "Have you ever seen hair exactly this color, except on Soda or Pony?"
"No, but --"
"Neither have I," she said pointedly. "Look at yourself. Look how tall you're going to be. I'm taller than my father. And I look at Darry, and I can see why. I love to read – I love words. Pony teaches English. I like to tinker with things and I can usually fix stuff, even without directions. And check it out, Soda's been a mechanic his whole life, he just has this natural ability. Maybe that's why. You – all of you – you just know these things, because you grew up with each other. I wondered. I spent all my life wondering."
She took a deep breath, determined not to cry. "And some of those things are lost forever." She turned to Soda. "Julie Diane? Diane was your mom; who's Julie?"
"I don't know," Soda admitted. "Maybe it was just a name Sandy liked. It's no one to her, as far as I know – not her mom or her grandmother. Unless it was someone she met in Florida."
Maureen nodded, then turned back to Shayne. "And what about you? What's Shayne Patrick from?"
Shayne was beginning to feel very ashamed of himself. "Shayne's Uncle Darry's middle name," he said, almost whispering. "And my granddad's. Patrick is Dad's."
"And how long have you known that?"
"Forever," he said miserably.
"Exactly." Maureen looked at Shayne earnestly. "I'm not trying to take your family. But good grief, can't you let me borrow them long enough to answer a couple of questions?"
"Yes, ma'am." Shayne took a deep, shuddering breath. "I'm sorry."
Soda got up and went around the table, hugging Shayne from behind. He kissed the top of his head. Shayne leaned back into his father's embrace. "Good boy," Soda said. "That's how your mother and I raised you."
He looked over Shayne's head at Maureen. "Okay. What else would you like to know?"
