Not—Part 16

Sodapop's POV

"That's mine," Ponyboy said wearily. I snapped my eyes up to his face. He just looked sick and tired of everything going on. "Guess she never bothered to give me a name."

"How do you know?" I asked quickly. Baby Boy Lawrence…my brother…

"My birthday is on it," he said simply, putting the birth certificate back into the strongbox and shutting it with finality. "So I guess my mom is Katherine Lawrence."

I shook my head. "No way, Pone. Your mom is—was—whichever—Jean Curtis. Mom was your mom. Katherine whoever wasn't really your mother."

Ponyboy sank back into the sofa, seeming to withdraw from our conversation. I stood up suddenly, then slammed my fist onto the strongbox in frustration. Ponyboy glanced up at me, startled. I wasn't even sure where it came from myself.

"That's it!" I announced. "You are not going to sit there like that, and Darry isn't going to hang around at work like he is now. I am so sick of you two not talking to each other whenever you get in a fight, and I don't care if we need the money from Darry's work. I'm calling his boss and telling him to send Darry right home. And then, we are all going to sit down together and actually listen to each other! Got it?"

Ponyboy nodded wordlessly, seeming quite surprised by my outburst. Heck, I was surprised by it myself. But sometimes exploding like that was the only way to get through to the two of them. I didn't like to have to do it, but sometimes I just had to.

I marched myself right over to the phone and picked up the receiver, realized I didn't know the number and had to go look it up quickly. Then I marched over to the phone and dialed Darry's work number, impatiently tapping my foot while it rang.

I didn't even wait for someone's questioning, "Hello". As soon as I heard the click of a phone being lifted, I asked hurriedly, "May I please speak to Darrel Curtis?"

"Darrel is working, son," whoever was on the other end of the line informed me. "What's the problem there?"

"Uh—family emergency," I lied rapidly. "My little brother's been hurt, and we need Darry right away. Could you tell him to get his, uh, self over here as soon as possible?"

The guy's tone changed. "You take care of the kid. I'll get to Darry right away. Say, what's your name, son?"

"Sodapop," I told him proudly. I loved telling it to people for the first time, whereas Ponyboy hated it. Too bad I wasn't there in person so I could see the guy's face.

The guy couldn't hold back a chuckle, even in the midst of this "emergency". "All right. I'm sure Darrel will be home soon." We both hung up. I reasoned with myself, it was sort of an emergency. And Ponyboy was hurt, just not physically like Darry would assume. And we did need Darry here right away. So it was only a half-lie.

Ponyboy and I sat in a bit of an awkward silence till Darry got home, bursting into the house in a panic. "Soda! What happened to Ponyboy?" he exclaimed worriedly.

"Sit down, Dar," I told him, using this perfect opportunity to get my point across. "Pony is fine. Nobody is hurt. But don't you two see—it doesn't matter what some papers said. Darry came running in here, half-crazy with worry about you because you're his kid brother and he'd die if anything happened to you. And I know, I know, Ponyboy, that if something happened to Darry at work or anywhere else, you would be just as afraid as I would be that he might not be okay. Papers don't decide who's in a family."

Darry was silent for a moment. "I really am sorry, Ponyboy—and Soda, too. I should've told you both when Mom and Dad died. And we all should've told you even before that."

"Yeah, you should've," Ponyboy agreed, his face expressionless. "And I wish you had, Darry. But Soda's right—papers don't decide who's in a family. Mom and Dad wanted us to all be like normal brothers. And I guess until yesterday we were. We fought, you even hit me, you both taught me to shoot and helped me learn to fight better, Soda and I share a room…I don't know how long it's going to take for me to adjust to the adoption idea. It'll probably take a long time. But I guess I might as well keep going like I always did without knowing about it."

I was so proud of both of them, I thought my mouth would split in half, I was grinning so hard. Ponyboy hadn't opened up this much to Darry in years, and Darry was admitting to being wrong, something that didn't come easily for him.

"So what do we do now, Soda?" Darry asked. They were both looking at me, waiting for me to come up with the magic solution.

"I'm not sure," I said honestly. "I think we're going to be sitting here talking everything out for a while, until we all go crazy or something gets resolved. And maybe in a little while we can get Two-Bit and Steve over here, but not yet. I think for now we should just keep talking. There's been enough holding back already. So, I'll grab us some chocolate milk and we can sit here all night if we have too."

"Uh, Soda? It's daytime," Ponyboy reminded me.

"Right. But it might take that long to get something done, all the way till tomorrow morning," I explained. It didn't really make sense, but oh well. He'd understand.

We were all going to understand each other better after this. And then we'd be brothers again.

Ponyboy's POV

Dear Johnny,

I don't usually write to people that can't write back. But keeping a diary or something doesn't seem like something a guy like me would do. So I'll do this instead.

Yesterday I found out I'm adopted. I couldn't believe it at first, but my first instinct was to run. So I got on a train and left town. But Soda was on the train too, by some weird coincidence or something. He just said he knew where I'd go because "a big brother knows". Darry, Steve and Two-Bit were looking for us, and finally Soda called them from a train station "halfway to nowhere". Darry and Steve came to pick us up then.

Johnnycake, I was madder than I've ever been, and hurt, and I don't know what else. I didn't want to talk to anybody but Soda, especially not Darry, so we just avoided talking to each other for a while. But we knew we couldn't do that forever.

Today Sodapop forced us to sit down together and talk everything out. I didn't want to at first, but I went along with it because Soda really wanted us to, I could tell. And Johnny, I guess I can tell you that some crying happened—though I won't tell you who did the crying—, and there was some yelling, and even at one point a certain someone threw a book at each of his brothers. Okay, okay, that was Soda. But he had his reasons for it. And even though he insists he didn't throw it hard, I might get a little bruise. Oh well. Bruises heal, but scars stay there forever. Who knows that better than you? I guess I might be scarred from everything I found out the past two days, but I think eventually they might get smaller and smaller and maybe even disappear completely.

And I don't think I'll be trying to find my "real" parents. I guess I know where my real parents are, even if I'll never see them again. I don't know. Maybe one day my birth mother will turn up. But if she does I won't have to deal with it by myself. Not alone.

I'll have my brothers to help me. Your buddy, Ponyboy

I guess…this might be it. I don't know, was it wrapped up okay? And yeah, there was a lot of Sodapop, but I wanted to use someone more objective, so you would see Ponyboy and Darry, kind of…you know what I mean?

Anyway, if I don't end up adding anything else on here, thank you so much for all the reviews you gave this story…and don't worry, 'cause you'll be seeing more from me soon! –J