Chapter 18
I was better by Friday. Darry even let me go out. I went with Anya to that group thing she took me to a while back.
"I thought you weren't going to come back" said Anya as we walked to the meeting.
"I thought I wasn't but I decided to go. It's better then staying home and being sick all week" I said, pushing the stroller.
"I'm sorry I got you sick" said Anya.
"It's ok. It's not like you meant to. Besides, I'd rather it be me then her" I said, pointing to Davanee. I would hate for her to be sick again.
"True."
In a couple of minutes, we arrived at the meeting. This time their weren't so many people there. But their were a couple of new babies. I guess a bunch of the girls who were younger then me had their babies in my absence. Anya went off to talk to a bunch of her friends while I took a seat in one of the middle rows. While I was waiting for Anya to come sit down, another girl came and sat on the opposite side of me. She had a baby boy in her arms. The baby seemed fine until he started crying. The poor girl tried everything to get him to stop but he just kept crying. I reached into Davanee's baby bag and pulled out a little teddy bear.
"Try this" I said, handing her the bear.
"Thanks" said the girl. The baby stopped crying once he saw the bear.
"You can keep it if you want" I said.
"You sure?"
"We've got plenty more at home."
The girl leaned forward slightly to see Davanee.
"She's so cute. What's her name?"
"Davanee. I'm Ponyboy Curtis."
"Maddie Lane. This is Dillon (I just had to spell it like that)."
"How old is he?" I asked.
"1 month. What about her?"
"6 and ½ months. What about you? How old are you?" I asked. She didn't look that old.
"12" she replied, her head hanging a little low. I would hang me head too if I was 12 and had a 1 month old. I thought 14 was too young to have a baby, but 12 is WAY too young.
"14" I replied.
"Oh, well, that's better then 12" she said smiling weekly.
"Not sleeping, are you?"
"Haven't slept till the day he came home. If I fall asleep during this thing wake me up, ok?"
"Ok." Before I could say anything else, Anya sat down on the other side.
"Who's this?" asked Anya.
"Oh, Anya this is Maddie. Maddie this is Anya. She's new" I said.
"Nice to meet you" said Anya.
"Likewise" said Maddie. Before anybody could say anything more, the meeting started. It was the same as it was last time only, except for the new people that is. When the meeting was over, Anya had to say goodbye to all her friends.
"I'm gonna go" I said to Anya. Davanee started looking a little sleepy.
"Alright. Hey, you know how you invited Hailey and I over for Thanksgiving?"
"Yeah."
"Does that offer still stand?"
"Of course."
"Is it ok if we come over Sunday around 3?"
"Sure. We won't eat till 7 or 8. I'll see you then ok."
"Alright. Bye."
"Bye." I wrapped Davanee up before we stepped out. It was starting to get chilly out and it wasn't good for a baby to be out in the cold too long. Right as we where about to leave, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see Maddie bouncing Dillon on her hip.
"Is it ok if we walk home with y'all. Our house is right down the street from yours" said Maddie.
"Sure." Funny thing is, I had never seen Maddie in our neighborhood before. 'Maybe she's new' I thought to myself. But still, just because your new doesn't mean you can't get out once in a while, right?
"So" I began, "have you lived in Tulsa long?"
"Practically my whole life. I've been here since I was 3" said Maddie.
"I've never seen you around our neighborhood. How come?"
"Well, we just moved in. We use to live in Soc territory but my dad lost his job and we had to move here."
"Welcome to greaser territory" I said.
"Thanks I guess" said Maddie, giving me a confused look.
"Don't worry, you'll get use to it."
"I dunno. Everything's been so hard lately. First, it was my mom dieing last year. Then my dad lost his job. Then we had to move. After that it was Dillon and his father leaving. And now it's school. I'm failing every subject because I don't get any sleep."
"Try night school. I worked for me" I said. Bringing up the topic of school reminded me that I had a bunch of make up work to do.
"You know, you're really nice" said Maddie, "most people would just give me a dirty look or rude comment. I lost a lot of my friends after Dillon was born, except for my best friend that is."
"Well, I kinda know what you're going through. I know how you feel."
"It's nice to know that I'm not the only one" said Maddie. In an odd way, Maddie reminded me of me when I first met Davanee. For a while, I felt lonely because no one else knew what I was going through. Maddie was right when she said it was nice to finally meet someone who knew what I was going through.
"I should probably get Dillon to bed" said Maddie, "thanks for walking with me."
"No problem" I said.
"Maybe I'll see you around sometime" said Maddie, walking a little further down the street.
"Maybe" I said, "bye."
"Bye." With that, Maddie vanished down the street. But then I thought of something.
"Wait!" I called.
Maddie stopped, turned around, and asked "what?"
"What are you doing for Thanksgiving?"
"Nothing. My dads' working. Why?"
"Do you and Dillon wanna come over to our house for dinner?"
Maddie thought about it for a couple of minutes before finally saying "sure." With that, she left for good. Her black, leather jacket blended in with the dark night. I watched until she was completely out of sight, then I turned and went inside the house.
"How was it?" asked Soda, who was pulling his shoes on while Steve and Two-Bit sat on the couch and watched TV.
"Fine. I met somebody."
"Who?" asked Soda.
"Her names' Maddie. She lives right down the street. She has a son named Dillon."
"How old is she?" asked Two-Bit.
"12. Too young for any of you" I said.
"Not too young for you" remarked Steve.
"True but I'm not interested."
"He already has a girl, remember?" said Soda, smiling a bit.
"Oh yeah, that Russian chick right?" asked Two-Bit.
"She's not Russian. Her name is Russian but she's not."
"Right" said Two-Bit, "would you date her if she was?"
"Does it really matter?" I asked.
"Of course it does" said Two-Bit.
"Well, to you maybe. To me, it doesn't. I'm gonna go put Davanee to bed" I said, taking Davanee to her room. I changed her into a new diaper and her pajamas.
"Let's read a book" I said, walking over to her bookshelf, "which book do you wanna read?" Of course she reached for Green Eggs and Ham.
"Do we have to read that again? Daddy's so tired of Green Eggs and Ham he's about ready to throw it away." Davanee continued to reach for the book.
"Alright, alright. We'll read it." I grabbed the book off the shelf and sat down in the rocking chair. Davanee loved to be rocked while I read to her.
She fell asleep after we read the book for the fifth time. I put the book back and put Davanee in her crib. I covered her up with her Mickey Mouse blanket and tip toed out of the room, turning the light off as I went.
"How come you don't read to us?" asked Two-Bit.
"Because you're not a baby. You can fall asleep without being read to" I said, sitting down on the couch.
"Tired?" asked Soda.
"No. Not after all the sleeping I've been doing over the past week" I said. I noticed that Soda had his shoes on. He never wore shoes unless he was goin' somewhere.
"Where ya goin'?" I asked.
"To see Sandy. She's stayin' over at a friends house tonight and she said I should go see her since we never get to see each other anymore" said Soda.
"Be careful, Soda" I said.
"What's that suppose to mean?" asked Steve.
"I just meant that Soda should be careful because Sandy could end up leavin' the baby with him, that is if it's his" I said, "could you imagine what it would be like if we had 2 babies around here?"
"No thanks. One is enough" said Soda.
"Thought so" I said.
"But I'm still goin' to go see her. Just to make sure she's alright." With that, Soda grabbed the car keys off the kitchen counter with Two-Bit and Steve following him out the door. I sat down on the couch and watched TV. I normally don't watch that much TV but I was tired and there was nothing better to do. I must've fallen asleep because I don't remember Darry coming home that night.
When I woke that morning, I found a blanket thrown across me and a pillow under my head.
"You must've been real tired to fall asleep on the couch" said Darry who was in the kitchen making breakfast.
"Must've" I said, rubbing the sleep out of my eye. I got up and walked into the kitchen. Davanee was sitting in her high chair, playing with some of her toys. She squealed and shrieked "daddy!" when she saw me.
"She's been doing that all morning" said Darry, "you weren't kidding when you said she could talk."
"And why would I joke about that?" I asked, lifting Davanee out of her high chair.
"I dunno" said Darry, shrugging his shoulders. I smiled slightly and took Davanee to her room to get her dressed. I placed her in her crib while I went to the closet to get her clothes. I picked out two shirts. For some reason I always liked to giver her a choice. One was a pink, long sleeve shirt with a butterfly on it and the other was a red, short sleeve shirt with a pink teddy bear that oddly looked like the one I gave her.
"Davanee which one do you……" when I turned around I saw that Davanee had pulled herself up. She was standing, with a little help from the crib that is. Davanee giggled when I showed her the pink shirt so of course we went with that one.
"Darry!" I called, still holding the shirts.
"What?" asked Darry from the kitchen.
"Come here, quick!"
Darry came running in.
"What is it? What's wrong?" asked Darry.
"Look."
Darry looked over towards Davanee.
"Did she do that when I was sick?"
"No. She's never done that before. She's learnin' somethin' new everyday, isn't she? You know, I'll bet she'll be real smart when she grows up."
"Of course she will" I said, lifting Davanee out of the crib.
"You know you can really see the resemblance" said Darry, "I mean, aside from the blonde hair and the fact that she's a girl, you two look almost exactly alike."
"Is that a good thing?" I asked.
"Of course" said Darry, "you know when you where born people said you looked a lot like Dad."
"Really?" I asked. I never really thought I looked like either one of my parents.
"Yeah." The room got real quite. It always got quiet whenever somebody mentioned Mom or Dad. I mean, it had only been a year since they died.
"Well, I better get to work" said Darry, "there's breakfast out in the kitchen if you want it. I'll see you later, ok?"
"Yeah ok" I said, changing Davanee into a shirt and jeans. I heard the front door slam and the car speed out of the driveway.
"You know" I said, "it's a shame you never got to know your grandparents. They would've loved to of met you." I remember that day like it was yesterday………….
It seemed like a relatively normal day. I had tons of homework that night. I always have a lot of homework on Monday nights. I was sitting at my desk in my room when Soda came in.
"Hey I'm goin' out. You wanna come?"
"Soda it's a school night."
"Yeah, so?"
"So, don't you have homework."
"Yeah but I'll do it later. Come on, come with. You can forget about homework for once." I thought about it for a moment. I had been doing a lot of school work lately.
"Alright. Give me a couple minutes, will ya?"
'Sure." Soda grabbed his shoes and walked out to the living room. I pulled on a clean shirt and a clean pair of jeans. I was putting my shoes and socks on when I heard a knock on the door. Someone knocking on the door at our house was a rare occasion.
"Soda, answer the door!" I yelled. Then I heard the knock again.
"Soda?" I guess he was in the bathroom or something.
I got up and answered the door. I opened the door to reveal two policemen.
"Is this the Curtis residence?" asked one of the officers.
"Yes. Why?"
"Are you Darryl Curtis?"
"No, I'm his brother Ponyboy."
"I'm afraid we have some terrible news." I opened the door a little wider so they could come in.
"Hey Pony, who was at the door?" asked Soda, walking out to the bathroom.
"Who is this?" asked the other officer.
"This is my brother Soda."
"What's wrong?" asked Soda.
"They have something to tell us" I said.
"Boys" began the officer, "I'm sorry to say this but your parents where in a terrible car accident."
"Are they ok?" I asked.
The policemen shook his head no.
"I guess they where coming home when it happened. They where crossing train tracks when the car broke down. They didn't make it out in time. I'm so sorry." I could feel my knees go week. I had to sit down for a minute or else I was gonna pass out. How could this happen? They where ok this morning. I saw them right before I left for school that morning. The last words I said to both of them where "see you when I get home." Little did I know I would never see them again.
I snapped out of the daydream when I heard the front door slam.
"Pony?" called Johnny.
"I here!" I called. I took Davanee off the changing table and took her out to the living room.
"What's up?" asked Johnny.
"Nothin' really just getting read to go out" I said.
"Where ya goin'?"
"I heard they were playin' Marry Poppins at the movie theatre today. I thought Davanee might like to see it. You wanna come?"
"Yeah I guess. I've got nothin' better to do. You think she's old enough?"
"Yeah. I mean, she might not remember it but I think she'll like it." I got her diaper bag together and we were ready to go. It was cold out so we all had to put jackets on.
The walk to the theatre was pretty quiet except for the sound of the wind blowing through the trees and the dry leaves scrapping the ground.
When we arrived at the movie theatre, there was hardly anybody there. I guess a lot of people had gone out of town for Thanksgiving. But I did see one person I knew.
"Hey, Pony" said Cherry.
"Hey."
"Long time no see."
"I've been busy lately" I said, "what are you doin' here?"
"I'm takin' my little brother to see Marry Poppins. What about you?"
"We're here to see Marry Poppins too."
"Oh, this must be Davanee" said Cherry, getting down in front of the stroller, "she's so adorable." Davanee looked up at me with a confused and scared look.
"It's ok, sweetie. Cherry's not gonna hurt you." Davanee smiled and giggled slightly. I guess that was her way of telling me that she approved of Cherry.
"Well, we better get goin'. The movies gonna start pretty soon" said Cherry.
"Yeah, we better buy our tickets. See you in there I guess."
"See ya." Cherry and her little brother walked off to find there seats inside. We bought our tickets and sat down next to Cherry and her brother. The movie was ok. I remember when my dad took me to go see that movie. I was about 12 or 11. . My dad liked to go to the movies a lot. I guess that's where I get that quality from.
Davanee fell asleep about half way through the movie. I guess musicals aren't her thing. Either that or she was just tired. I think I'll go with her being tired.