It's about time I thank S.E. Hinton for creating an incredible group of boys I've come to really connect to.
Also, Indianagreaser, thank you for lending an ear when I talk your head off about this story.
XX
Darry Curtis was shit out of luck.
The payphone he had miraculously found on the corner of the street had no dial tone. The snow was still falling and the wind had started to pick up. He had a sick little brother in his truck a few paces away and he wasn't looking forward to knocking on a random door and asking for help looking the way he was. Would they even let him in to use the phone?
It wasn't like Darry Curtis to curse, but at that moment he felt like letting out a few choice words.
Then there was a loud noise in the distance and the tow truck appeared out of nowhere…
XX
"What are you doing?" Soda asked, as Steve expertly maneuvered the borrowed tow truck off the road and towards the exit.
"I'm getting off the highway," he replied, "We crossed this main route a couple of times already. If Darry was on this road, we would have seen him," he said confidently. "We'll try the back roads"
After meandering over to the DX, somehow pushing past the freezing temps and40 mile winds, Soda and Steve had arrived at the station and found their boss's 1959 Chevy Viking 60 Tow Truck. For being at least 5 years old, it was still in pretty good condition and even had a tow plow in front, which the guys knew would come in handy soon. Steve knew where their boss kept the keys, and he went into the store to get them behind the counter.
Soda whistled low when Steve met him in the garage. "She is a beauty," he said, looking up at the classic red truck.
The beauty had managed to push through the deepening snow drifts and rumble off the exit. But when they hit a rough patch of ice, and almost slid into a ditch, Steve decided he would start driving even slower, even though it wasn't in his nature.
The truck pushed snow mounds out of his path, but there was no other way to get around the hardened slush. The snow was heavy and it was caked all around them - on the roads, the houses, and even on the power lines. It was much worse than anyone had expected, any weatherman had predicted.
The tow truck curved around a junction to some of the more residential roads that hid behind the highway. Soda peered out the window as the wipers carelessly took more frost off the glass. He was glad he was with Steve. He knew the roads well, but he could barely see anything with all the snow blowing around. Anyway, Steve knew them better.
"Hey, we're right back near the house already," Soda suddenly noticed, "You think Darry would be around here?"
"I don't know," Steve said, "But we haven't checked here yet. And they ain't anywhere else that we did check."
"I'm hoping they found some kind of shelter already," Soda said more to himself than anyone else. Then in an even lower tone. "I hope Pony's ok."
He didn't know why but an anxious feeling was growing in the pit of his stomach. He didn't want to sit in the truck anymore - he wanted to do something. Was searching for them on foot the answer?
Not a single person or car was on the road. Houses were dark. Soda wondered if people were even home. They had to be, in this weather, right?
The truck passed an oddly placed payphone on the side of the road. And then, a speck of gray in the distance. Soda almost missed it, he had to do a double take. He peered out the window, his eyes going round.
"Steve!" he yelled out, causing Steve to brake hard right in front of a huge mound of snow. Soda hit the dashboard in excitement.
"Soda what is wrong with you?" Steve looked hard at his friend.
"Steve, turn the headlights on." He said
"What the h-" but he did it. The high beams were on as the car rumbled forward and then Steve noticed him, too, the figure in gray, dragging himself through the snow.
"Is that who I think it is?" Steve asked, staring hard out the window. He rubbed his eyes and did his own double take.
As they drove up, the figure in front of them looked at them hard. But it was more the shock of an actual vehicle on the road - because he could see who was inside just yet.
The truck had literally appeared out of nowhere. And then Steve pulled over to his left so the figure stood by Soda's side of the truck.
"Darry!" he called out, rolling down his window.
Darry whipped his head around, eyes widening. He couldn't help but grin from the craziness of it all.
"Well look what the cat dragged in," Soda bellowed.
"If it isn't Darry Curtis!" Steve whooped, putting the car in park and leaning towards the passenger side, talking over Soda's shoulder. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were out for an afternoon stroll, enjoying this fine weather."
"Hardy har har," Darry scowled, as his features returned to serious Darry, "You think I'm out here for fun? We fishtailed off the highway and ended up here, then ran out of gas! We're stuck!" he choked, "I went to look for help. I don't even know where we are…" he added.
"You're not but 20 minutes from the house," Steve replied.
"Really? That close?" Darry palmed his forehead as he walked up to the passenger side. "I can't see anything!"
"Hey Darry," Soda said, looking around, the concern evident, "Where's Pony?"
"I left him back in the car," Darry said, as snowflakes pelted him in the face. "He's not doing too good," he said, his eyes dark. "We got no gas...no heat...I ain't about to let us freeze to death. That's why I went for help..."
Darry put his thick jacket-covered arm around Soda at the passenger side door and grinned, "Boy am I glad to see you guys!" he exclaimed, "You couldn't have come at a better time." He paused, then rapped on the door, "How in the world did you guys find me? Whose truck is this?"
"It's been more than 3 hours since you guys went to the doctor," Soda explained, "I knew something was up. And look at this weather. I wanted to go out to look for you, but 'ol Stevie here had the bright idea to borrow the tow truck from the DX," he said. "I don't know how we would have been able to come out here otherwise."
Darry nodded at him in thanks.
"Yeah, well, there was no way my car would hold up in this mess," Steve added. "This baby purrs like a kitten," he quipped.
"More like a hungry lion," Soda joked, "But it's holding up pretty ok."
There was a pause.
"Darry," Soda said, his voice serious, "What did the doctor say?
Darry looked at his brother and knew right away that Soda could feel something was really wrong. He didn't know how he knew but it was just something that Soda had possessed since he was little. Some kind of sixth sense that always knew when something in his little brother was off.
Darry looked at Soda in earnest. "The doctor was nice. It wasn't actually Dr. Reed, he wasn't there. It was his son... Thinks it's some kind of flu, but couldn't tell for sure. He did a whole bunch of tests. Strep test, blood tests. And he gave him some pain killers and wrote a prescription for more - which we never actually got because of this damn weather," Darry explained, "But we won't know for sure, until we get the results," Darry added, "He threw up on the way over," he told the guys, "Wants to sleep all the time. Real achy. And he has a high temp. Still."
Darry tried to smile, "Thank the lord you guys came when you did," he said. "Pony needs to be home, in bed," Darry said. "And it's pretty damn cold out here, let me in!" he opened Soda's passenger door, "Scoot over, Pepsi,"
Sodapop slid to the middle of the truck to let Darry in.
"It's just down the road," Darry pointed straight ahead. "I didn't get very far." Darry rubbed his hands together, "Geez it's nice and warm in here," he said with a grin.
"You said your heat shut off?" Steve asked and he pulled the car into drive.
Darry nodded, "The gas...I forgot to put enough gas in the car," he paused, his jaw tight. " This whole thing is my fault."
"Aww, come on, Darry, you didn't know this was going to happen," Soda said, trying to stay positive.
"Soda, you even warned me!" Darry shot back.
Soda shrugged, "I didn't know it was gonna be this bad."
It had started to snow again.
"Darry," Steve called out to him, "Show me where the Ford is, I'm not gonna be able to see it on on my own," he said.
It was a bumpy ride back. The snow had not only started to once again cover everything in its path, it had also started to pile up in large thickening clumps everywhere so that the street was more like an obstacle course than a residential road.
Darry hadn't walked very far, but it was far enough that he couldn't make out the car when he had first run into Steve and Soda. Still, he knew he would eventually be able to find the truck again, when the time came, as he had it imprinted in it his memory on purpose.
"Wait a minute," Soda said pointing to a white mass on the side of the road that he had somehow known immediately was the Ford. "Is that it?"
Something was very wrong, Soda noticed, his eyes wide. "Why is the -"
He didn't finish. Darry was also in shock, his mouth gaping. "Wait a minute, where's - " he didn't finish his sentence either.
The truck was parked where Darry had left it, but the passenger side door was wide open, practically swing in the harsh winds and Ponyboy was nowhere to be found.
Before Darry could even think twice, he was pushing open the passenger side door of the tow truck and leaping out of the vehicle as it was moving. Lucky for him, Steve wasn't going so fast. And there were no other cars on the road.
"Pony! PONY!" Darry shouted, running over to the passenger side of the door was open. He looked inside, pulling out the abandoned ski jacket. The hat was gone. And Ponyboy was nowhere to be found. Pony was gone.
Oh god, Pony was gone.
He didn't have an extra coat with him.
Steve and Soda,not fully understanding what was going on, were still sitting in the tow truck. Steve had basically stopped in the middle of the deserted road.
"Darry?" Soda called out, his voice peaked, "Darry, where is he?"
"I - I -" he pressed his hand against his forehead again. For once in his life, Darry Curtis was at loss for words. "I don't know. I told him I was going to find help. I told him to stay here. He was sleeping..."
Soda scrambled out of the truck, his feet crunching in the deep snow as he ran over to where Darry stood by the Ford."You mean - what happened to him? Where could he have gone?"
"I have no idea," Darry said, "He was - out of it. Mixed up. Worse than this morning. He couldn't even hold the bottle of water he was drinkin'. He was tired. He kept falling asleep. He can't be out in this weather right now," he said, a terrified look in his eyes. The desperation in his voice was clear, "We need to find him, Soda!"
"How high was his fever, Darry?" Soda asked.
"I don't know, Soda, I ain't a doctor. It was high...the medicinewore off. I had to force him to drink water. He wasn't sitting up very well. He seemed to be communicating but...well, you know how Pony gets when he has a fever," Darry said.
They both remembered just months earlier when Pony had become sick after the deaths of Dally and Johnny. He had run himself ragged - exhaustion, shock, concussion, you name it.
He had said some pretty strange and confusing things at the time, thinking he was in Windrixville, not eating anything because it tasted like baloney. Who knew what could be going on in that head of his now?
Steve decided he would put the car in the park right where it was. When he got out, Soda looked at him. "You're just gonna leave the truck there?" he asked.
"Ain't no one gonna drive down this road now," he said, "We need to look for the kid, right?"
Darry nodded in agreement, and then he balled his hand into a fist and brought it down, punching the car seat. Lucky for him, the window was rolled down, otherwise he would punched through the glass."I can't believe I left him here," he seethed.
"Darry, what else could you have done?" Soda said, ever the pacifier, "Come on, let's look for him, he couldn't have gone far."
Soda stared out at the expanse of white snow that stretched across sidewalks and front lawns, like a sea. It peaked and fell in large hills and valleys across streets. It stretched up and down roads, rolling in waves, against houses and cars and trees.
He wiped at one side of his face, the wet, recurring snowflakes landing on his cheeks.
"Geez, I can barely see anything," Soda said, "I can't believe it's snowing again."
Darry shut the car door without a loud bang that made everyone jump. Then he started scanning the ground around them, which was already being covered all over again by the falling snow.
Steve was the one that spotted it first though. He was standing near the bed of the truck and looked down, noticing the print of a shoe in the snow. It was already starting to get covered by falling flakes, but at least he could make it out.
"Darry!" he called as he noticed more tracks leading away from the truck in the opposite direction from which they had come. The trio began to follow the footprints that became clearer as they continued down the path. At some points, the guys saw dents, pits, and deeper holes, which made them assume that Pony had stumbled or fallen at times.
Pony's constant falling became more obvious as they moved further away from the truck. At this point, too, the tracks were inconsistent and all over the place.
"I think he's slowing down," Soda said aloud, basically echoing what everyone had already been thinking.
And then, Soda saw him first, the aviator hat covering his face and his long limbs sticking out of the snow like a couple of bent matchsticks. One arm lay spread out at his side, the other curled up at his chest as if he had been holding the hat.
Soda was immediately at his side, not caring that his knees were sinking into the wet snow. As he pulled the hat off Pony's face, Darry was suddenly there as well, leaning over him on his side, hands hovering as if not sure what to do.
"Pony?" Soda asked cautiously, then with more force, cupping his cold face in his hand. "Pony!" Pony's face was white, except for the bright red spots on his cheeks, that looked like they had grown even bigger. Darry noticed his chest was moving up and down rapidly and he was breathing very fast. The heat radiated off him like an oven.
"Pony, can you hear me?" Darry asked, cupping his brother's biceps with his hand and shaking gently. For a moment, Pony didn't stir and then came a low moan and scared, weak voice. "Darry?"
"I'm here, Pone," Darry said, catching Soda's gaze. "Soda's here too."
He looks bad, Soda mouthed to Darry.
"Darry?" Pony called out louder, as if he was afraid he had heard the voice as part of a dream, "Soda?"
Soda raked his fingers through Pony's hair, pushing it out of his eyes. "Shh, don't talk, baby," he soothed. "We're gonna to get you outta here."
Darry put his arm under Pony's head and neck to lift him up. Suddenly, Pony cried out in pain. Darry was so startled, he almost dropped him back in the snow.