Chapter twelve

"Daddy is that really you?" I blinked my eyes wondering if I was hallucinating.

My dad lumbered towards me, his favorite flannel shirt hanging open to expose his white undershirt beneath. "Why sure it is! Don't tell me you have forgotten me already!"

"Daddy, I have missed you so much!" An immense feeling of relief washed through my soul as I lunged into my father's arms.

"Scout Marie?" I heard my mother's voice, a sound I had almost forgotten.

"Momma?" I pulled my head back from my father's strong chest and looked behind him. My mother appeared in her favorite light green sundress. I knew it was her by her soft green eyes and dishwater blond curls. Her smile was as I had always remembered. I grabbed my father's hand, so he wouldn't slip away, and wrapped my other arm around my mother's waist. "Mom! You have no idea how much I've missed you."

My mother petted my hair and assured me, "Scout, darling, we have been with you and your brothers all along, even now." Mom grabbed my other hand and the three of us turned back towards the accident scene. By this time the paramedics were working frantically to save my life. I looked at Sodapop who could barely stand even with the support of his best friend. My brother cried openly, not worrying about how weak he may have looked to other greasers standing on the outskirts of the scene.

Troubled by the scene, I held tightly to the hands of my parents and asked, "What are you two doing here?"

My dad squeezed my hand back, and spoke sweetly into my ear. "We've come to tell you something."

I looked into my father's eyes. "Tell me what?"

He raised a finger to his lips to shush me. "Not yet, baby girl. We want to stay around a little. We will tell you in due time."

My mother looked over at her son, dressed in a DX uniform, and beamed with joy, "Darrel, look how he's grown."

"Sure is a fine looking young man," my father added. "He has matured too. He works hard to help the family out. That's the mark of a good man!"

"Sodapop's one of the best." Mom sighed. "He's going to make some girl very happy to have him."

My dad looked on at Sodapop and spoke to me. "Scout, you be sure to tell him he'll find someone to love again."

Before I could answer a rusty Plymouth pulled up to the accident. Ponyboy jumped out of the car followed by Two-Bit and Casey. Pony sprinted to Sodapop, and gasped for air when he saw my body being ready to go to the hospital. Two-Bit and Casey grabbed a hold of each other and cried out. The scene nearly broke my heart, but not my parents. They seemed in a constant state of euphoria.

"Oh look, there's Ponyboy," my mother beamed. "I don't like that color of hair on him. I'll be much happier when his darker color returns."

"Maggie!" My father said, "Look at little ole' Two-Bit. You know what Scout, that kid's gonna start going places with his life."

"Darrell, you know you aren't supposed to tell her that stuff."

"Maggie my dear, it's all relevant!"

"What's all relevant?" I asked trying desperately to figure out my parent's phantom rambling.

"Nothing baby," my mom answered. "You know how your father has difficulty following the rules. If he's not careful we're gonna have to go back before we get a chance to see Darry."

I furrowed my brow with question. "As usual you two are making no sense at all. I sure miss you joking together at home."

"Well, from what we've seen and heard you and Sodapop have been doing a fine job keeping the humor in the family." My father leaned down close to me. "That means more to Darry and Ponyboy than you will ever know."

I heard my father's words and wondered how much of the future he knew. I wondered what the afterlife had provided for him and what it would provide for me. I looked back to see my body being placed in the ambulance and Soda, Pony, Casey, and Two-Bit hustling to Two-Bit's Plymouth to follow me to the hospital.

A large puddle of blood and soiled bandages outlined where my body had been. I thought of the worst, and swallowed hard before my question. "Am I … am I dead?"

My dad laughed at me, "Let's not talk about that. Let's just enjoy the time we have together. It's been so long since I have been able to see you and my boys up close."

"There he is!" My mother yelled out in elation. I turned my head back to the scene to find my parents and I standing along the wall in the waiting room at the hospital. Everyone in the gang was there, including Darry. Their eyes were red and swollen as they clung to each other and paced the floor when necessary. For the moment Ponyboy was the worst. He could hardly breathe through his sobbing as Soda held him tightly in his arms. My mother dropped my hand and walked over to her sons. I heard her whisper words to console them and rub the sides of their faces. "Settle down boys. All will be better in time." The boys didn't feel her hand, but I wondered if they felt her comfort.

A physician, dressed in green scrubs, entered the room. Darry and Two-Bit jumped to their feet. My brother stepped forward. "Doctor, is Scout going to be alright?"

The doctor's face held a solemn look. "We've moved her to intensive care. It's too soon to tell. We'll know more tomorrow, if she makes it through the night." The doctor's words rocked Two-Bit back into his seat.

Soda yelled out in anguish, "If? What do you mean if? You've got to do something! You've got to be sure she doesn't die!"

Darry placed a hand on his brother's shoulder and spoke through his own tears. "Easy little buddy."

The doctor frowned. "I'm sorry, but right now all we can do is hope she pulls through. She can have visitors, family only. The rule on intensive care floor is two visitors at a time, but I'll tell the nurses to make an exception so you three boys can go in together." Darry thanked the doctor as he left the room.

I grabbed my mom's hand to get her attention. "Mom! What's going to happen to me?"

She shushed me, just as my dad had done earlier, and avoided the question. "What about Owen? Is he dead?" I looked back to the room, hoping to get a chance to look for any trace of my boyfriend, but the scene before my eyes had changed. I could barely tell who the bruised, unconscious patient in the hospital bed was then a distressed older woman raced into the room followed by a man I had never seen before.

"Oliver!" The woman screamed fiercely and reached out for the young man in the bed. "Oliver you need to get better right this second! Oliver you can't die you just can't…."

A man, in an expensive suit, grabbed for the woman and pulled her back while a few nurses rushed into the room to calm the mother down. The man grabbed his wife. "Angela! You need to calm down right this instant and get a grip! That is Owen, not Oliver. Owen is the only son we have left. You need to face reality!"

"Shut up!" The woman screamed at her husband, "Just shut up! It's not my fault! You can't blame me for this too!"

"Nobody's blaming you for anything. All we want is for you to calm down." Mr. Jasper scolded his wife as she crumpled to tears in the chair near the door. The man turned towards the unconscious boy in the bed. He scooped his arms around his son and cried. "Owen… Come on son. I need you to pull through."

My mother noticed my stare towards Owen's mother. As she always did when she was alive, she spoke words of wisdom to help me through my unspoken confusion. "There are some things you do in life that you don't find peace for until peace finds you. That's how it is for Angela, and that's how it would have been for Johnny. Tell Ponyboy that Johnny is in a better place now. He's happier than he has ever been before. He's found the real love he was always searching for."

"You've seen Johnny?"

"Of Course," mother smiled as the view around us turned white and vacant, "he's with us everyday of your life."

"What about Dally?" I asked.

"Dallas too!" Mom beamed, "and you'd be proud at how well behaved he is."

I laughed a little and remembered the smiles of Johnny and Dallas. I grew excited at the thought of seeing them again. I grabbed my dad's arm and announced, "I'm ready."

"Ready for what?" My father asked with a smile, a carbon copy of Darry's smile.

"To go with you." My eyes, a duplicate of my father's eyes, were filled with question as to why my parents had come for me in the first place.

"Baby girl, we love you so much, but it is not your time. That's why we've come. To send you back."

"No!" I argued a little. "It's okay, I'm ready. I want to stay with you."

My mom reached down and tucked a few of my stray hairs behind my ear. "Honey, it's not your choice. We wish it was, but you have yet to serve your purpose on earth. There is so much more for you to do there."

I felt the first tinge of sadness swell up in my heart. "No! It is my choice, and I choose you two!"

My dad laughed at me. "You always were the headstrong type, even though you didn't show it all the time. Listen, I want you to take a message back with you."

"Darrel! You know that is frowned upon!"

My dad shot my mother a look as if to say, 'what are they going to do, kill me?' Dad bent down and looked me in the eye. "Your brother feels like he has failed us a few times over. Tell Darry we are so proud of him. He is doing the best he can, but he needs to know he didn't let us down."

Realizing the moments were fleeting my mother gathered me into a hug. "And don't cling to the past. You and your brothers need to move on from our neighborhood and create lives of your own. Each one of you has that potential, even Sodapop."

I felt a single tear roll down my cheek. "But I don't want to tell them, I want to come with you."

The light behind my parents grew bright and inviting. They stepped back from me and joined hands. My father smiled down at me and winked, "No Sissy, your brothers need you now." A second later they stepped back into the heavenly shine, leaving me alone in the endless sea of white nothingness.

"NO!" I screamed out and ran into the light hoping to catch up to them.