Chapter 5

Davanee woke up that night around 7. She hadn't eaten since we where at the Tastee Freeze so she was probably starving.

When I went to her room to get her, she was wide awake, her faced tearstained from crying.

"Shh………it's ok baby. Daddy's here." I grabbed her teddy bear out of her crib. "See look what Daddy's got. You want your teddy?" Before giving her the bear, I wound it up first. I brought her out to the living room so that she could see everybody. In that department, she was the exact opposite of me. She was social and outgoing around people where I was more of an introvert. I laid her down on the floor and placed some of her toys in front of her. I got on the floor with her and waved one of her shiny toys in front of her. It was a little butterfly that had a mirror on it's wings and made crinkly noises.

"Who's that baby?" I asked, pointing to her reflection, "is that Davanee?"

She smiled and squealed slightly. I couldn't help but smile at the shrill sound. It was the first time she had ever made a noises that wasn't crying.

"Maybe you should try giving her a bath" suggested Darry, who was sitting in his chair watching the news.

"You think she's old enough?" I asked.

"Yeah probably. She's probably not ready for the bathtub yet" said Darry.

"Then what am I suppose to bathe her in?"

"The sink."

"How do you?"

" 'Cause Mom use to bathe you in the sink when you where a baby." I said ok and jumped up to get a wash cloth and soap from the bathroom. I got the soap and washcloth, and went into the kitchen and filled the sink up with lukewarm water.

"Not too much water" warned Darry.

"I know, I know." Darry brought Davanee into the kitchen and I undressed her and ran the wash cloth over her. She screamed the minute the washcloth touched her. I dipped the washcloth in the water and rung it out over her stomach. That she didn't seem to mind so much but she still kept screaming.

"Awww………..somebody doesn't like bath time" I said. Just then, I noticed that she was shaking.

"Darry, she's shaking. Is that suppose to happen?" I asked.

"I dunno. She's not sick or anything is she?"

"Maybe we should call Dr. Irene" suggested Darry.

"Good idea." Darry dialed the number and handed me the phone. I guess if I was going to do this whole parenting thing, I needed to learn how to multitask.

"Hello?" came a voice from the other end. It was Dr. Irene.

"Hey Dr. Irene. It's Ponyboy Curtis" I said.

"Hi. Is Davanee ok?"

"Well I don't know. We where giving her her first bath and she started shaking. Is that suppose to happen."

Dr. Irene sort of laughed and said "sweetie, she's shivering. Babies shiver after a bath. It's normal."

I sighed a sigh of relief. "For a minute I thought she was sick or something."

"No. Just cold. I was meaning to talk to you anyways though. You might want to think about bringing Davanee in for her shots."

"Shots?" I almost dropped the phone at the word shots. I never liked them when I was a kid and always freaked when they brought out the needle. And of course the "no operating machinery" joke was getting old. I was only five years old and knew that wasn't funny. But I suppose doctors tried everything they could to keep the baby distracted before the shot.

"We need to give her the standard baby shots. Polio, diphtheria, stuff like that."

"When should I bring her in?"

"Two weeks probably."

"Can I schedule it right now?"

"Sure. I'm open Friday the 22 if that works for you."

"June 22?"

"Yes."

"That works."

"Ok then. I'll see you then. Bye."

I said "bye" and hung up. I finished up Davanee's bath and wrapped her in the towel that was on her changing table. I dressed her in some little purple pajamas that had the feet.

"Now guess what we're gonna do" I said, tickling Davanee, "we're gonna have a baba. Your hungry, aren't you? You must be since you haven't eaten since this afternoon." I wrapped her up in her Minnie mouse blanket and fixed her a bottle.

She was right in the middle of her bottle when somebody knocked on the door. I got up, baby, burp rag and all, to answer the door. I opened the door to reveal Jamie.

"We need to talk" said Jamie, head hung low.

"Darry can you watch her for a minute?" I asked, handing the baby to him. He said yes and continued feeding her. I went back outside.

"What do you want?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Your mad."

"No kidding. One minute my life is perfectly fine and I was finally ok with it, and the next I've got a baby on my hip and a burp rag on my shoulder. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was scared. I was scared about your reaction. I was just scared."

"As if I'm not? I'm the one who's been up every night at 3 am wondering 'am I doing this right?'."

"I'm sorry."

"Why did you give her to me anyways?"

"My family is moving to California next week. My parents never knew about her. I went to my friends house for the nine months. As far as I know, my parents think I ran away because of a big argument we got in and was just being a teenager and wouldn't come to my senses. The only people that knew where my brother and my friend. When she was born, she had a case of jaundice and she couldn't breathe on her own. Her lungs weren't fully developed yet. The doctor said that it would probably be a good idea if she didn't do sports. I kept her for about a week until I brought her to you."

Just as she said that, I heard Davanee crying.

"I gotta go" I said, standing up, "our baby's crying."

I left Jamie out on the porch. Even though she was Davanee's mom, I didn't want her to be within five feet of her.

"What was that all about?" asked Darry, handing me the baby and the burp rag.

"That was Jamie. Davanee's mom."

"What did she said?"

"She thought she'd stop by and tell me that she's' moving to California. Maybe she thinks she can forget all about her life here in Tulsa. Maybe she wants forget about the fact that she has a daughter" I said, pacing the room and trying to burp Davanee at the same time.

"I'm sorry, Pony."

"It's ok. I didn't really expect her to be around anyways. Moms don't just drop the baby off at the fathers doorstep and then show up the next day wanting to play with the baby. Besides, if she really loved her she would of kept her."

"How could anybody give up something that cute? And it's almost like giving up a part of yourself."

"How would you know?"

"Just a guess really."

There was moment of silence between us. I was thinking about what Jamie said, about Davanee being sick when she was born.

"She was sick" I said, almost to myself then to Darry.

"Who was sick?"

"Davanee. She had jaundice and she couldn't breathe on her own."

"Well she's better now. Jaundice is normal for newborns. You had it when you where born."

"How could you remember that? You where six years old."

"My baby brother was getting more attention then me. It's not easy for a six year old to understand that babies need more attention. You might have to explain that to Davanee one day" said Darry.

"That is if any girl wouldn't mind. Some girls hate it when the guy already has a kid" I said.

"You shouldn't have any problems getting another girl. Girls like babies that are as cute as her." But that was just the thing. At that point, I didn't really want another girl. One girl in my life is more then enough for me.

"Hey Dar?" I asked.

"What?"

"What am I going to do about school tomorrow? I can't just leave the baby here all by herself."

"Don't worry about it. I already talked to the school. They said they'll let you finish out the year in night school during the summer. It's not for the whole summer it's just for the first three weeks."

"Why just the first three weeks?"

"Because your only gonna miss the last three weeks. They'll let you make up your exams at the end of the three weeks. You might be doing night school when you go back to school in the fall."

"I didn't know they even had night school at my school."

"Apparently they do."

There was another silence between us. I hadn't realized all Darry and Soda had done for me. They decorated the nursery. Darry helped set up my night school thing. I know it may not seem like a lot but to me it does.

"Thanks Dar."

"For what?"

"For everything. The nursery, the night school. You've been a big help."

"Hey, you woulda done the same thing for me." I thought about that for a minute. Would I do the same thing for Darry if he was in my shoes? Probably not. It's not that I wasn't trying to be mean or anything but it's the truth. I wouldn't. I wouldn't know how to help. I don't know a thing about babies. I barely knew how the handle Davanee.

Another week passed and nothing new really happened, except Davanee picked up the habit of hair pulling. She'd pull out big clumps of my hair almost everyday.

One morning, Davanee woke me up at six in the morning, which was earlier then the normal time. She normally wakes up around 7:30 or 8:00.

"What are you doin' up so early?" I asked, scooping her out of her crib. Instead of crying this morning, she was making little baby noises. I took her out to the kitchen and started making breakfast. Since she wasn't old enough to sit in a high chair or have baby food, I had to make her bottle first. The eggs would have to wait unless someone else woke up this early.

As I sat in the kitchen and fed Davanee, I could hear the shuffling of feat coming down the hall. It was Darry.

"Morning" I said.

"Morning. Want me to start breakfast this morning?" asked Darry.

"Could you? I would but…."

"You've got your hands full. I understand. I guess we can bend the rules just this once. So, tonight's your first night of night school, isn't?" asked Darry, cracking an egg in the frying pan.

"Yep. I'm nervous about leavin' Davanee for the first time."

"I've been meanin' to talk to ya about that. I might have to work late tonight so Soda might be here with Davanee."

"That helps my nervous a lot."

"Soda's not that bad."

"True but I'm still not sure about this."

"She'll be fine. I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

"Anything" I said. After all he did for me, this was probably the least I could do for him.

"I need you to go to the grocery store today. I'll give you the list of stuff we need. You can take the baby with you."

I said "ok." But he would have to drive me.

After breakfast was over, and after everybody came over to our house, Darry wrote down a shopping list and dropped me off at the grocery store with a couple of hundreds in my pocket.

"Here's the list. Now Soda and Steve will be back here to pick you guys up in half an hour. I'm gonna leave the baby seat with him so they can put it in Steve's car. Good luck at night school tonight. Don't forget to tell Soda Davanee's bedtime routine. He hasn't been home enough times to see you do it" said Darry.

"Ok. See ya later, Dar."

"Bye" said Darry. With that he sped out of the parking lot and in the direction of the roofing company.

I looked over the list briefly before going inside. The list looked something like this:

Chocolate Milk

Eggs

Bread

Diapers

Baby powder & lotion

Baby wipes

Shampoo

Toothpaste

Anything else that you think we might need.

I put the baby in one of those carts with the baby carrier and went inside. As soon as I got inside, I could feel about a million eyes on me. Mostly from old people .The kids my age didn't really seem to mind. I walked up and down the isles, throwing things that we needed into the cart.

I was trying to decide on which brand of baby wipes I should buy when a Jerry Lee Lewis song came over the speakers. I think the song was called "Lewis Boogie." I didn't really care since Jerry Lee wasn't exactly my favorite artist. I mean, he was cool and all but he was no Elvis. But Davanee seemed to like the song. She smiled really big when she heard it.

"You like this song?" I asked, "personally I think Jerry Lee is a little psychotic but this song isn't that bad." Just as I turned the corner to get a case of Pepsi, I saw Curly Shepard and Mark Jennings placing six packs of Soda on the shelves. They where wearing a funny looking uniforms too. I tried to get out there before either one of them saw me but I was too late.

"Curtis!" shouted Curly, abandoning his soda's and coming up behind me.

"Long time no see."

"When did you get outa the reformatory, Shepard?"

"Couple of months ago. Tim made me get a job here."

"Hey Mark" I said, trying to be as nice as I could. Mark was ok but he could be real dangerous at times. His buddy Bryon wasn't so bad either but I don't think he really liked me.

"Curtis" said Mark, looking me up and down.

"So what's this we hear about you bein 'Mr. Mom' now?" asked Curly.

"It's true. Her name is Davanee."

"Who's the mom?" asked Mark.

"Jamie Coryell. You know her?"

"That's Angela's best friend. Of course I know her. She's a total babe" said Curly, "too bad she's moved to California though. You did know she was moving, right?"

"I know. She came by and told me a couple of weeks ago" I said.

"Curly! Mark! Back to work!" shouted some guy.

"That's our boss, man. Gotta go" said Mark, heading back down the isle.

"See ya" said Curly, following Mark. I said bye and finished up my shopping.