Chapter 23

I must admit, I was a bit nervous about meeting Anya's parents for the first time. I had been practicing all day what I was going to say to them.

"Are you ready?" asked Anya.

"Yeah. Let's go" I said, grabbing my jacket off the hook.

"Wait a minute" said Darry, "what time will you be back?"

"Around 2 probably" I said, "would you mind watching Davanee until then?"

"Well, I gotta go to work at 2 but Two-Bit and Johnny will be here the rest of the day to watch her incase you're not back by then. Try to be back here by then. I know you don't have school tonight but I don't want to make Two-Bit and Johnny baby-sit the whole day, ok?"

"Alright. We'll be back by then" I said. I gave Davanee a kiss good-bye and said "you be a good girl while I'm gone, ok? Don't be givin' everybody a hard time."

"She never does" said Darry, taking the baby from me.

"Try to take her for a walk before you leave, ok" I said.

"I'll try. If not, I'll tell Johnny and Two-Bit."

"Ok, bye" I said, giving Davanee another kiss.

"Bye. Good luck" said Darry.

I said thanks and walked out the door. I felt bad about leaving Davanee for almost the whole day but I knew I couldn't take her with. I was scared that these people might hurt her.

"Are you nervous?" I asked as we walked to Anya's house.

"A little. I'm afraid they'll say no" said Anya.

"Me too."

The rest of the trip was quite. I think both of us where a bit too nervous to talk.

"This is it" said Anya, pointing to a house. It was ok. It wasn't like a house that a Soc would live in but it wasn't as bad as some of the ones in our neighborhood. The house was sort of nice on the inside. Better then my house that is. We found her parents sitting in the living room. Her mom was reading a magazine while her dad was watching TV.

"Who's that?" asked the dad, not looking away from the TV.

"This is Ponyboy Curtis" said Anya.

"Ponyboy? Who the hell names there kid Ponyboy?" asked the dad.

"His parents" replied Anya, "I wanted to talk to you an mom about something."

"Whatever it is, it's gonna have to wait till a commercial break" he said.

"No, it can't wait" said Anya, moving in front of the TV so she would grab his attention. He stared at her for a while but finally flipped the TV off.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Ummm……, Ponyboy and I came up with an idea" began Anya.

"What's that?" asked the mom, lowering her magazine.

"I want to move in with Ponyboy and his family" said Anya.

"Why, you sleepin' with him or something?" asked the mom.

"No, I'm not sleeping with him. I would just rather be there then New York" said Anya. The mother was about to protest but the father cut her off.

"Mary-Anne, can I talk to you in the kitchen?" asked the father. Without saying anything, the mother got up and followed him to the kitchen.

"I guess they're going to talk about it. You can sit down if you want" said Anya, sitting down on the couch. I sat down next to her.

"Look, I'm sorry about what my mom said before. I'm sorry that she jumped to conclusion like that" said Anya.

"It's ok. There's no need for you to be sorry about it. I would probably think the same thing if my daughter brought home some guy" I said.

"That probably won't happen for a long, long time" said Anya.

"She's not dating until after she's married" I said, which of course didn't make any sense whatsoever.

"My dad use to say the same thing about me."

"Really? I thought you said he didn't care about you?"

"Not him. I meant my real dad. Even though I was five when he died, I remember him saying that all the time to friends, family, whoever. God, I miss him."

"I know how you feel. I miss my dad too."

"I didn't even get a chance to say a real goodbye to him. That night when I was leaving to go to my friends house, I said a quick goodbye and gave him a kiss."

"At least you got some sort of goodbye" I said.

"I remember the funeral. It was hot out. Everybody was sobbing except me. I was confused about whether or not I should cry. It wasn't until later that I learned when you're five, you're not really effected emotionally by those types of things. I put a pink rose on both of there caskets."

"I remember my parents funeral too. It's not something that you can easily forget" I said. Before either one of us could add on to the conversation, Anya's parents came back in.

"Anya, you're mother and I have made a decision. We thought that it might be in you're best interest to stay with the Curtis'. You can move out today if you want" said the dad.

"Really?" asked Anya, a smile creeping across her face.

"Yeah" said her mother. Anya jumped up and went straight to her room. I followed her to her room. To be honest, her room wasn't all that great. It had a bed, dresser, and mirror. There wasn't even paint on the walls.

"Your room is sort of bare" I said.

"I know. I didn't really feel like decorating it all that much" said Anya, pulling a suitcase out from under her bed. She went to her closet and got all of her clothes. She didn't have that many. She grabbed everything else she thought she might need.

"You ready?" I asked.

"I'm ready" said Anya. I helped her carry her stuff home.

"You know, I never thought I would be getting out of there. For some reason, I thought I was going to be stuck there forever" said Anya, "I'm so happy to get out."

"Me too" I said, smiling. I was more happy about the fact that she was coming to live with us than her getting out of there.

When we got to the house, we put all of Anya's stuff in Davanee's closet. I didn't think Davanee would mind since she was only a baby.

"Where is everybody?" asked Anya.

"Darry and Soda went to work. Johnny and Two-Bit probably took Davanee to the park or something. You wanna go see what they're doing?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure" replied Anya.

Just as we were about the leave, the phone rang.

"Hold on" I said. Anya waited for me by the door while I answered the phone.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Hi. Is this the Curtis residence?" asked a shaky voice from the other end. It sounded like a girls voice.

"Yeah" I replied.

"Good. For a second there I thought I had the wrong number. Is Ponyboy there?" asked the girl, a little more confident now

"Yeah, this is he" I said.

"Oh" said the girl. Her voice went right back to being nervous.

"Who is this?" I asked.

"Jamie."

I turned to Anya and told her to go to the park without me. She gave me a strange look at first but left anyways. She would understand once I got the chance to explain later.

I sat down on the couch.

"I'm in town for a couple of days" continued Jamie.

"And?"

"And I was wondering if you could meet me with Davanee at the park tomorrow" said Jamie.

"I don't know. I don't think that's a good idea."

"Please, Pony. I want to see her" she said. I thought about it for a moment. Even though she did abandon Davanee, she was her mother and from what I understand, the mother still has a right to see her baby.

"I guess you can see her for a little while" I said, "but just for a little while."

"Really?" asked Jamie, a hint of excitement in her voice.

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, even though I'm still kinda mad at you for not telling me, you're still her mother and you still have the right to see her" I said.

"What time should we meet?" asked Jamie.

"How about 12?"

"12 works for me" said Jamie.

"Alright. See you later" I said.

"Bye" said Jamie, hanging up.

I sat on the couch a little while longer before I joined the others at the park. I wasn't so sure about letting Jamie see Davanee. What if she tried to take her or something? I couldn't stand Davanee being taken away from me.

"Who was on the phone?" asked Anya once I got to the park.

"Jamie" I replied.

"Who's Jamie?" asked Anya.

"Davanee's mother" I replied.

"What did she want?" asked Johnny.

"She wants to see Davanee. She asked me to meet her here tomorrow" I said.

"What did you say?" asked Two-Bit.

"I said yes."

"But what if she tries to take Davanee?" asked Anya.

"I dunno. I kinda figured that if she had given her up what would make her want to take Davanee back? Besides, it's not like I'm leaving her alone with the baby. I don't trust her that much" I said.

"Maybe you should have someone go with you" suggested Two-Bit.

"Like who?" I asked.

"Soda, me, Steve, anybody I guess. You know anyone of us'll come with ya" said Two-Bit.

I smiled and said "I know." We decided to go to the Tastee Freeze. It was getting close to lunch time and I was starting to get hungry. We only stayed there for about an hour. It wasn't as busy as it normally is so the service was better. Once we got home and after I fed Davanee, I put her down for a nap. She fell asleep almost instantly. She usually did that after a day at the park.

Once she was asleep, I sat down in the rocking chair in the corner. Before I knew it, I myself had fallen asleep.

I was awoken by Soda shaking me hard.

"What?" I asked groggily.

"You fell asleep in here again" said Soda, "come on it's time for dinner."

I got up, stretched, and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

"Where's Davanee?" I asked.

"She's sitting in her high chair in the kitchen. She woke up about an hour ago."

"Why didn't you wake me?" I asked.

"You've been up late every night and up early every morning for the past two weeks, you needed to sleep a little" said Soda. I sat down at the kitchen table while Darry finished making dinner.

"So how did it go today with Anya's parents?" asked Darry.

"Fine. They said yes" I said.

"That's good news. Anything else happen today?" asked Darry.

"Jamie called" I replied.

"What?" asked Darry.

"Jamie called. She wants to see Davanee tomorrow at the park" I said.

"Why?"

"Because she's her mom and she can. Davanee has the right to see her mother" I said, even though I knew there was no way that Davanee was going to remember this visit.

"Are you going?" asked Darry.

"Yeah. I don't see any reason not to. I was thinkin' that maybe somebody could come with us though" I said.

"Who?"

"I dunno. I was thinkin' about askin' Dallas, you know, to kinda scare her off" I said, laughing slightly. Darry laughed too.

"There's only one problem with that plan" said Darry.

"What's that?"

"Dallas got arrested again. From what I hear, he's gonna be in there for a long time" said Darry.

"What'd he do? How long is he gonna be in there?"

"Driving under the influence. I don't know how long he's gonna be there. A couple of months to a year possibly" said Darry.

"When did this happen?"

"Couple of days ago" replied Soda, coming into the kitchen. Darry put dinner on the table and we stopped talking about Dallas being arrested. It really wasn't a big shock to me. So far, he's been arrested nearly 20 times this year. Since none of us have the money to pay bail, the only ways he can get out are for good behavior or if he stays there for the whole sentence.

"So, who's going with you tomorrow?" asked Darry.

"I don't know. Are you workin' tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yeah" said Darry.

"I'm not" said Soda, "Steve's not either."

"Do you and Steve wanna come?" I asked.

"Go where?"

"To the park."

"Why?"

"Because Jamie called and she wants to meet us there."

The rest of dinner was pretty quiet. I mean, we did talk but we didn't talk about anything important. After dinner, I gave Davanee a bath. But this time it was in the bathtub, not the sink. We got her one of those seats that goes in the bathtub. You know, the ones with the suction cups. She seemed to like the bathtub better than the sink.

After the bath, I gave her a bottle and read her a story. She fell asleep before I could finish the story, like she always does. I put her in the crib and kissed her good night. I took a step back and looked at her for a moment. Most people would think that my life was terrible. My parents died and I have to raise a baby. But, honestly, I didn't think I was that unfortunate. I actually liked being a parent. I mean, it took some getting use to but it is probably one of the best things that has ever happened to me. People ask me how we get by, but it's easy when you've got a family like mine.

I found it hard to sleep that night. I kept on thinking things like what if Jamie tried to take Davanee? What if this was some sort of trap I had fallen into? I finally fell asleep around 1 but I was awoken at 7 by the sound of Davanee crying.

I made breakfast that morning since I was the first one up. Once breakfast was done and out of the way, I got ready to go. I let Soda and Steve get Davanee ready while I got dressed. Once I was ready to go, we left. When we first got to the park, I didn't see her. But then I noticed a little blonde haired girl sitting under the tree.

'That has to be her' I thought to myself.

"Where is she?" asked Soda.

"Sitting under the tree" I said, pointing to the tree, "you guys just stay here. I'll let you know if I need anything."

Steve looked a bit confused but Soda understood. I took Davanee out of the stroller and started making my way towards the tree. When Jamie saw me, she jumped up.

"Hi" she said.

"Hi."