Chapter Three - New Living

Ponyboy refused to eat dinner that night. He laid in his bed, simply shaking his head as Two-Bit offered him food. He wouldn't eat any of the food that Two-Bit bought. Two-Bit gave up as he ate dinner by himself in the kitchen. He sighed, thinking about what he should do about Ponyboy. He didn't want to call a doctor for him. It was too early for that. He heard nothing coming from Ponyboy's bedroom. He figured that he just needed more time to get used to the fact that his brothers were no longer there. He hoped so, anyways.

That night, Two-Bit slept in Soda's bed. He thought he should keep an eye on Ponyboy to make sure he was alright during the night. He was already asleep in his bed by the time Two-Bit came in. Ponyboy looked peaceful enough while he slept, so Two-Bit simply went to bed, dreaming peaceful dreams as Ponyboy awoke in the middle of the night. He almost didn't know where he was. It finally occured to him that he was in his own bed, in his own room at home. The shock had worn off and now he was aware of what was going on around him. He saw Two-Bit asleep in Soda's bed next to him, smiling in his sleep as though he was dreaming of something nice. Ponyboy sighed as he noticed a glass of water on his night stand. Two-Bit had put it there in case he got thirtsy in the middle of the night. He fell back asleep, dreaming of Johnny being alive along with his brothers and Dally.

The dream was interrupted as Ponyboy awoke in the morning, the sound of glass breaking. "Darn!" he heard out in the hall. Two-Bit walked into the room with a tray. Ponyboy's breakfast was on the tray and Two-Bit had broken a glass out in the hall. "Rise and shine!" Two-Bit said with happiness as he entered the room He set the breakfast tray on the bed, in front of Ponyboy. "You better eat, Ponyboy," Two-Bit told him as he sat up in bed. "You didn't eat dinner last night and you didn't have much for lunch yesterday. So, you should really get something in your stomach. It's not good for you to not eat like this. I was even considering taking you to the hospital to make you eat."

Ponyboy shook his head as he looked at the food. "I'm not very hungry," Ponyboy said. Two-Bit smiled.

"It's about time you talk," he said as he sat in a chair next to the bed. "I've been worried about you for the past couple of weeks. You wouldn't say a word and I was worried. In the meantime, eat your breakfast. I made your favorite, pancakes and eggs. I even have some toast with butter for you. You might not think it, but I'm a pretty good cook, Ponyboy."

Ponyboy nodded as he took a bite of the toast. "Yea, it is pretty good," he said. "It sure is a warm day out." Two-Bit nodded as he looked out the bedroom window.

"Yea, it is pretty warm. I had the air-conditioning on last night to cool the place off a little bit. It's not very strong, but I thought i might help with the temperature a little bit." He went out into the hall for a minute and returned with a stand fan. "This might help," he said as he plugged it into the wall outlet. A cool breeze filled the room. "I found it in the basement the other day. I had to find some papers down there." Two-Bit couldn't tell Ponyboy what those papers were. He had to search for the wills of his brothers and that wasn't a very pleasant experience. Two-Bit noticed that Ponyboy hadn't eaten. "Eat your breakfast," he reminded Ponyboy. "You don't want to get sick, do you?"

So, Ponyboy ate his breakfast and thanked Two-Bit as though everything was going to be better again. He knew about his brothers. He still couldn't accept it, though. "I'm feeling a little tired, still. I think the heat is getting to me," Ponyboy said as Two-Bit took his meal tray. Two-Bit nodded. The sounds of the neighbors' dogs barking could be heard.

"It'll get cool in here soon enough. In the meantime, you've got a lot of stuff to get done. It may be the summer, but you can't stay in bed all the time like this. You haven't been out of the bed in a couple of days. That's why I was starting to get worried."

"Has anyone called here, Two-Bit?"

"Yeah, lots of lawyer people and some cops asking about the accident. All I do is tell them to leave us alone. We don't need any lawyers. It's simple how everything happened. It was nobody's fault that the accident happened. If it was anybody's fault, it was the storm's fault."

Ponyboy gulped. Two-Bit immediately regreted mentioning the accident. "Anyone else call?"

"Yea, Steve called a couple of times. He was asking if I wanted to do something with him, but I told him I was too busy taking care of you and he even mentioned taking you to a doctor."

Ponyboy looked confused. "Doctor? I dont' think I need a doctor. I'm not sick or anything." Two-Bit chuckled as he pulled the bed sheets off of the bed to wash them.

"That's what I told him, Ponyboy. You were plenty healthy. The only thing that had me worried was that you weren't talking no matter how hard I tried to get you to say something. I asked some people about it, actually. They said that when major things happen to someone they go into a state of shock for a given length of time. Thankfully, it wasn't so bad for you. They say that some cases of shock can go on for years." Ponyboy nodded. The fan wasn't doing a very good job of cooling the room, so he could feel the sweat literally dripping down his face as he listened to Two-Bit.

"Yeah," he responded. "I can't remember much since the night it happened. I'm thinking maybe my mind was asleep." Two-Bit nodded as well as he pat Ponyboy on the shoulder.

"Yes, but you're doing fine now. Everything's going to be alright. I'm your new brother now, Ponyboy. I'm gonna take real good care of you until your independent. I promise to do anything for you to make you happy. We can do whatever you'd like, Ponyboy. I'm game for anything at all." Ponyboy smiled a little.

"That's awfully nice of you, Two-Bit. I do have one thing I'd like for you to do for me." Two-Bit smiled as he continued to pat Ponyboy on the shoulder.

"Of course, Ponyboy. Anything for you. I have to treat you like a brother now."

"Then could you turn on the AC? It's still so hot in here. I think that might cool the house up."

"Of course. I'll turn it on right away."

Ponyboy smiled. "Thanks, Darry," he said and suddenly caught himself as he said Darry instead of Two-Bit. Two-Bit gulped as he stood in the doorway. Tears began to stream from Ponyboy's face as he thought of his brohters. He began to cry in bed. "Oh, Darry!" he cried. "And Soda! Why did you have to go? Why?" He continued to cry as Two-Bit rushed up to him and hugged him.

"Oh, Ponyboy, it's alright. I know how you must be feeling now. But it's alright. They're in a better place now and I bet they're watching over us right now. i'm sure they're happy to see that I'm taking their place for you. They must be so happy. I bet they're with Johnny and Dally in Heaven right now. they're all watching over us."

Ponyboy wiped the tears from his eyes. He looked sad and tired. "I don't feel so well now, Two-Bit. I don't think I'll be able to stand this new living. I want my brothers back. I love them and I need them. It's been a horrible year. My parents died, Johnny and Dally died, and now my brothers died. What am I supposed to do? This is just plain awful! I can't stand it! I can't stand it! Please, I can't stand it! Bring them back! Please, bring them back!"

Ponyboy went into hysterics as Two-Bit tried to calm him. "Calm down, Ponyboy, please. There's nothing we can do. They're gone and that's the way it is." Ponyboy cried and cried and it went on for some time. Two-Bit finally went to the bathroom and found a bottle of tranquilizers. He gave one to Ponyboy and it finally calmed him down. He laid back in the bed and starred up at the ceiling for a while. Two-Bit closed the door to leave him with privacy as he went into the living room and called Ponyboy's family doctor.

"Hello," Two-Bit said as he got in touch with the doctor. "This is Keith Matthews. I'm calling for Ponyboy Curtis. He's one of your regular patients. I was wondering if I could get a prescription for tranquilizers. Ponyboy has just recently gone through a very bad situation and it seems like he had been proscribed for them when his parents passed away about a year ago. I was wondering if I could get a refill of them for him because his brothers just recently passed away and he isn't taking it very easy. So, if you could call our local drugstore to give them permission for a refill, I would be very grateful." The doctor agreed to call the drugstore in town. Two-Bit thanked the doctor and hung up the phone as he went back to the bedroom to check on Ponyboy. He was now sitting at his desk, writing something in a composition book of his. He had calmed down quite a bit.

"Who was on the phone?" Ponyboy asked. Two-Bit shrugged as he tried to come up with an excuse. He didn't want to tell Ponyboy that he was calling to get a prescription for him.

"Oh, that was Steve. I was calling him just to see how he was. I thought I'd let him know that you were doing well."

"Oh, is that so?" Ponyboy asked. "I dont' think I'm doing so well. If I can get so upset like that, maybe there is something wrong with me."

"There is nothing wrong with you, Ponyboy. You're just very stressed out. It's perfectly normal for people to get like this after such a thing. You've been put through a lot lately and you've got a reason."

Ponyboy shrugged as he closed his composition book. "Oh, I don't know, Two-Bit. After what happened, I don't feel right. Thank God it's the summer. I wouldn't be able to stand school. i've been through too much. I just don't feel good anymore."

Two-Bit nodded, understanding as he sighed. "It's alright, Ponyboy. Are you thirsty? Would you like some sod- or, I mean water. Would you like some water or something?" Ponyboy nodded as Two-Bit went to the kitchen. He was going to say soda but luckilly caught himself. He figured that might set Ponyboy off again. He brought the water to Ponyboy as Two-Bit came up with an idea.

" I was thinking," he started. "How about we go out and do something today?"

Ponyboy shrugged as he had some of the water. " I don't know. What would we do? I'm not feeling up to doing much fun." Two-Bit sighed.

"We can't stay in the house forever. That'll just make you more upset. There's got to be a point where you want to go on living. Staying in the house all the time is just terrible. We need to go out and breathe some fresh air. You haven't left the house since we got back from the lawyer's office. You must be ready to go out and do something. Aren't you tired of staying in here?"

Ponyboy stood up. "Maybe I'm not, Two-Bit. This house is all that reminds me of my brothers. Maybe I want to take it easy. It's only been two weeks. I'd rather stay here and try to get it out of my head before I go out and celebrate like nothing even happened. That would just make me feel guilty. I wouldn't want to do that. My brothers wouldnt' be happy if I went out and had fun while I'm supposed to be in mourning for them. That would get them upset."

"It wouldn't get them upset. They'd be happy to see you having fun. I was gonna take you to a movie or something. You used to love movies. I remember you going to the movies all the time. I don't understand. Maybe you really aren't feeling well."

"I'm not. I just don't feel like leaving the house today. Maybe tomorrow we can go out and do something, but today I'd rather rest and take it easy while I have the time. I need to get some writing done."

Two-Bit looked over at Ponyboy's composition book. "Writing? What are you writing?"

"A novel. It's a book about everything's that's happened to me since I walked out of the movie theater. It was the day before Johnny killed that soc. If I could write this book and get real credit for it, I'm thinking that I might actually be able to make some money for my self. Now that I have nobody making the money for me, I suppose I should try to do it myself."

"I'm making money for you. I'm starting a job next week and I'm gonna work hard to put food on the table for both of us, Ponyboy. I did it just for you. I'm not gonna be told that no one's making money here. I'm making money for you."

Ponyboy nodded. "I know that, Two-Bit. What I meant was that may be this could improve our financial situation at least a little bit. I'm thinking of lots of ways to make money for myself. I have ever since I got up this morning. So, I made a list of things that we could do to get money. I've got it here in my drawer."

Two-Bit smiled and chuckled to himself. "Now I feel like a fool criticizing you. At least I know you've been thinking about these important things. Can I see the list?"

"Not right now. I want to try a few things on my own right now. First of all, I need to get this book finished. It's going to be a big hit. I just know it. I can go to those book stores and sign the books for people. I really can't wait. It's going to be great."