FOREVER CHANGED
CHAPTER 22
VISITS
Johnny had his surgery the following week. He spent nine days in the hospital.….but not on Maggie's floor, so she made it a point to check up on him every chance she got. She spent her breaks and lunches with him and snuck the entire gang up there, when she knew the other nurses wouldn't notice.
The operation was long and intricate, the surgeon had to trim the scar tissue away, then repair the damaged ligament and tendons and reset his fingers, so they would lay straight…..the results, if any, wouldn't be known for sometime.
The seasons had now changed from late summer to early fall. Johnny sat out on the front porch, waiting for Ponyboy to come home from school. His arm was bandaged and splinted, resting in a sling that painfully cut into Johnny's scarred right shoulder.….no matter what kind of padding Maggie used. He shifted a bit, to get more comfortable.
Since their outing to the movie theatre a few weeks ago, Johnny was becoming a little more confident. Although, he only truly felt comfortable hiding in the 'safety' of the front porch or a car, he knew he had to start facing the world eventually.
Starting a few days after Johnny got home from the hospital, Pony would take him for a walk through the neighborhood, after school.The farthest they had got, was around the block; today they were going to try for two blocks.
"Wow, everything's so different", Pony commented, noting the row of now well-kept houses they were passing. "You're not kiddin'.…look", he exclaimed, as they stopped right in front of his former home.
The outside was freshly painted, the broken widows and doors, replaced, the garbage that cluttered the front porch and lawn was gone, and even the crumbling front steps were repaired. Johnny caught a glimpse of a young mother pushing her son on a swing in the back yard.
"Can I help you boys?", she asked, scooping her little boy up and walking to the front yard. Johnny started to feel self conscious as the mother and son got closer, he instinctively held the up-turned collar of his denim jacket against his neck.
"No Ma'am…we were taking a walk…and um…he used to live here", Pony explained, before Johnny could find the courage to get any words out. The lady smiled knowingly. "You must be Johnny", she stated. He nodded slightly. "Your name was carved on the bedroom door", she added, noticing his confusion.
Johnny cringed, remembering the beating he got when his father found out what he had done to the door. She looked at him for a minute, he started to get uncomfortable. "I read about you in the newspaper.…that was very noble, what you did", she complimented, recognizing him form his picture. She eyed his wheelchair. "I'm sorry for your…misfortune", she added sadly.
He nodded and looked down. The lady smiled. "I think I have some things that belong to you", she stated heading for the front door. "Come Samuel" , she called her little boy. But when he didn't come, she hurried into the house, returning promptly with a small shoe box. "Most of these were in the cubbie hole in your closet, the others were in the attic", she said placing the box gently on Johnny's lap.
Ponyboy opened the lid, revealing a miserably small amount of items; a yellow rubber ball, probably belonging to a set of jacks, one old baseball card, a few marbles, a pair of little blue baby booties.…and a picture of a very young Mrs. Cade holding infant Johnny, the only picturehe had ever seen, with him and his mother.
"I wasn't sure if this was yours, it was shoved deep in the cubbie...it looked to old and ragged to belong to someone your age", the woman stated, pulling a filthy, floppy teddy bear from behind her back. Johnny smiled. She held the teddy bear out, Johnny lifted his arm, but he still couldn't grasp, so Pony took the bear and laid it into the shoe box. "Thank you Ma'am", Johnny replied, before they headed for home.
"So, is that your teddy bear, Johnnycake?", Ponyboy asked teasingly. Johnny chuckled. "No...I found it in the gutter when I was about five. I brought it home and put it in the cubbie and forgot about it", he answered, intentionally forgetting to tell the whole story.
As Pony pushed him along, Johnny began to remember the importance of the teddy bear...
It all started one day...when little Johnny Cade was barely five years old. He was walking home from the grocery store with his mother. She was more than a block ahead of him, sreaming at the top of her lungs, for him to catch up.
He was known for dawdling, occasionally...he liked to watch the birds fly and the squirrels play. Today his slowness was not of his own fault...it was hard walking in shoes that were two sizes too small.
Johnny'smother was almost gone from his sight now. He slowed down a bit, already knowing the way home, by heart. Johnny walked along the curb, trying to keep his balance, when his slipped; landing in the gutter next to this old tattered teddy bear. He picked it up and headed home.
Proud of his new toy, little Johnny showed it to his parents as soon as he got home. Furious at his son for bringing garbage home, Johnny's father slapped him across the face, threw the bear in the trash can, and sent him to his room, with no supper.
Johnny snuck out of bed that night and dug the teddy bear out of the trash can. He took it to the bathroom and washed it off as best he could, then brought it to his room and placed it deep inside the cubbie...knowing that if his father ever saw that bear again, Johnny would get the beating of his life.
The bear had helped a young Johnny get through some real tough times. When the the beatings and fights got really bad, Johnny would hide in his closet and pull the bear out, for comfort. That was before he had any friends...before he had the safe haven of the Curtis house.
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When Johnny first spoke of the visiting Dally's grave, no one knew how to answer. Johnny's emotional state as well as his phyical condition were still very fragile, they gang always worried that just bringing up Dally would cause a setback in Johnny's recovery...but it was Dally's birthday, and Johnny wanted to go.
The fallen leaves crunched under the weight of their feet. Darry helped Ponyboy push Johnny up the uneven hill, a task harder then they had expected.
The stone was cold, grey and flat to the ground...not granite looking and beautiful, like the largeheadstone Mr. and Mrs. Curtis had. There were no pictures etched into the stone, just a simple crucifix and the words 'Dallas Winston Oct.11, 1946-Mar.7, 1966'.
Two-bit was the first to salute their fallen friend. He popped open a beer bottle and poured the contents over the grave. "Happy Birthday Dal", he snickered.
Darry kneeled down and dug as small hole, placing the flowers Maggie had so lovingly potted, into the ground.
Soda laid a penny on a corner of the stone. "That's for luck, Buddy", he whispered into the wind.
Steve bent down and stuck a ticket stub into the grass...it was from the last movie they had seen together.
Ponyboy tossed an opened, stale pack of Lucky Strikes onto the stone, he hadn't smoked a single cigarette since Johnny came home.
Johnny touched his neck. "Ponyboy?", he called."Are you sure Johnny?", Pony asked.
They all stared at Johnny with a look of both admiration and shock. He nodded slightly. "Christopher's the patron saint of travelers...I ain't plannin' on goin' nowhere", he chuckled softly. "...figured Dally could use it more than me".
Pony bent down and laid the chain over the flowers, the pendant dangling in the breeze. "Be safe Dally...where ever you are", Johnny stated, in a voice sounding much stronger then it usually did.
In this place, Dallas Winston would never again be desribed as a Greaser or hood; here, he was just a person...a person who died before he had the chance to really live.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hope you didn't think this chapter was too cheesey. I just wanted to show how important the Curtis' are to Johnny and how they've all moved on from Dallas' death. It was intended to close out some storylines, so we can move ahead.
REVIEWERS: ivy45663, Maddiecake and WhoaaReally53, thank you so much for the reviews...I'm so glad you're still interested in this story. I hope I haven't lost any readers...please let me know how you feel about this story.