I opened my eyes just enough to see a blur of bright white light. I felt like I had strep throat, my throat was in fire. I wanted water, but I didn't think I could swallow it. I groaned at the discomfort for lack of anything to do.

"Easy Darry." Maria's voice came really soft. It was almost weird. I felt like I was in some weird universe. Something streamed down my neck. "Honey, please lay still."

I felt her drag something cold across my neck. "Stop," I was surprised how raspy my voice was.

She held pulled her rag back. "Are you alright? You blacked out for a second. Pony and Soda called me and dragged you in here." She stroked my hair.

"My throat feels like it is on fire." I answered honestly. My words were still coming out in a croaked voice. "Where are my brothers?"

"Sunny ran out after he dropped you on the floor. Pony and Soda are around the house. Darry, what happened? Why did he attack you like that?"

"It was over that fight I had with Grace. I couldn't tell you what happened, one second he was screaming at me, when I said I didn't want to talk about this in front of Pony, he started choking me." I collapse down on my pillow. "I thought my brother was going to kill me."

She leaned over and kissed my forehead, just in time for Pony to walk in. "Sorry!' He muttered quickly as Maria and I both jumped.

"No, Ponyboy!" We said at the same time. Maria smiled at him. I looked over; he was as red as a tomato. "I'm leaving, why don't you sit with Darry for a little bit. I have to go back into work."

Pony nodded, "Yeah."

I patted the bed. "Come here, kiddo." It burned worse when I opened my mouth.

Maria squeezed my hand. "Bye, Pony."

The door clicked. "What have you been up too?"

"Nothing," He answered. He kept staring at me. I remembered how horrible it was after I hit him. Soda refused to talk to me. I couldn't even choke out I'm sorry. I wondered if he was half as jittery as I was now.

"I'm alright, Pony. No harm done." I lied.

"Your neck has hand prints on it."



It was really hot out, but I didn't like how the air felt inside. I shuffled through a couple of pictures. I came across one of the drawings that Pony did. It was a drawling Pony did for art class. It was him and Sunny. Sunny was picking him up by his upper arms and kissing him. The real picture was taken when we were in Florida; Pony drew it for an art assignment he was supposed to draw an image of happiness, but after hours of drawling it he didn't bring it to school. He never said why, but I had a feeling it was because he was embarrassed of it, Sunny kissing him and all. Yeah, we were all really happy that day. Now we were all in some alternate universe, I hated it.

"What no hippie gathering today? You're not going to go down to the lake and sit around a camp fire and sing?" Steve walked up the path. He perched himself on the step.

"Shut up." I snapped. "Don't get pissed off at me because I have other friends." I had brought Steve and Two-Bit to meet Jay and Allen to keep it simple, it didn't go well, not at all.

"They're cowardly hippies. You like fighting, and drag racing. Hell, you said yourself, that even Sunny hates them."

Something in me just snapped. My friends didn't get a long and now my brothers weren't getting along and I was sick of being on the side lines watching or worse caught in between. I jumped out of my chair. "Who cares!" I screamed. "Sunny can take it shove it. Sunny hates the whole world! I'm not even exaggerating. It's like someone turned a switch on inside of him. I wish it would turn off."

Steve looked shocked by my out burst. "What's going on? Is his family back?"

"He choked Darry." I mumbled as I shoved some of the stuff I brought out on the porch with me. I found Pony's cigarettes, and lit one up.

Steve smirked at first, but when he realized I was serious he sat down, and lit up too. "Wow. Why?"

"Why? Because he's psychotic, he needs to be in a loony house. He's been this way since the war." I puffed out a ring of smoke. It was the first time I said that, and it felt good to get it off my chest. "Something is wrong with him. Seriously wrong. He nearly killed Darry. With his hands on his neck, he picked Darry right off the ground and slammed him into a wall choking him. Darry almost turned as blue as the sly. All because he yelled at Grace."

"Maybe he doesn't like people messing with his woman." Steve offered. He thought for a second. "Or maybe the war got to him. I heard about how some guys came back and they just lost it. Some of them became addicts, some of them killed themselves. It happens when they can't take the war on like real men."



Steve supported the war. I thought I did too until Sunny came home and until Allen, Buddy, Jay , Anna and all of them pointed out to me everything wrong with it. "You can call it patriotic; you can call me a rebel, or a coward, but let me tell you something. War ain't good when you are forced into to like Sunny was. You can support this war all you want, you can even enlist like you had planned, but if this war makes people like Sunny is, then I'd rather hope for peace."

"That makes you a hippie, and a hypocrite you wanted to enlist with me." He was just being sarcastic, but he was making me mad, this wasn't a sarcastic matter.

I jumped off the rocker, flicking my cigarette but at him. "I don't want anything to do with a war that makes people like Sunny, turn into nut cases. I was wrong. War ain't exciting and adventurous, it's horrible." I slammed the screen shut and went inside.

I didn't want to go to school, but Darry made me. I remember being up eating cereal. Sunny didn't come home, I tried to tell myself that I didn't want him to come home. I saw the hand prints on his neck matched the almost faded one on my wrist. I shuttered, my wrist felt broken after he hurt it. I wondered if Darry's neck felt broken.

"Bye kiddo." He croaked out. His eyes still looked as shocked as they did when Sunny's hand seized his neck.

I waved and made my way to English class. I couldn't concentrate. I wondered if Steve was going to be mad at me. I tried not putting grease in my hair today, but by third period I couldn't take it anymore and put some in. I didn't want to go home. I knew Sunny could be there. I didn't want to see him, not yet at least. I went down to Main Street, even though I knew Darry didn't want me there. I went into the coffee shop, where Jay, Anna and Allen were hanging out. Ben was with them. Ben was Jay's older brother. He was more political, more hippie and probably even smarter than Ponyboy. He was Darry's age and went to the local college but he lived in a big rainbow painted house off of Main Street. He was almost always high. He was always up for sharing or buying his brother and friends beer. I always wondered if Darry would have done that if our parents hadn't of died.

Jay looked up at me and grinned really big. "Your brother is literary genius."

"Why is that?" I asked. Jay threw a stack of papers bound together. Ben always had these, it was from underground publishing company that published anti government works and civil rights stuff.

The Pledge of My Allegiance: by Sunshine Curtis was typed across the cover. "Keep it." Ben said. "And read it, whether you want to or not."

"Thanks," I said they always gave me this stuff, but I rarely actually read it. This time I was going to.



"Man, when he walked through the door last night, every lady in the house threw themselves at him. Did he teach you how to play? He bragged about how good you were."

"Sunny was at your house?" I looked at Ben. Why the hell would Sunny stay at some hippie house?

"Yeah, he came in with John."

I had no clue who John was. A sick feeling washed over me. I gripped the pages oh his story tighter. "What's this about?"

"Nam," Jay answered me. "I didn't even sleep last night. I read it straight through and didn't finish it yet."

I suddenly wanted to read this. "I got to get home guys. I'll see ya'll Friday."

"Sunny's Curtis' office," I said telephone.

"What the hell were you thinking?" A voice growled into the phone.

I sighed putting my pen down. "What did I do this time?" I asked.

"First you go on campaign with a Democrat, and now you write this anti American bull shit."

"Really? It spread all the way to California? In just a week." I grinned. "I bet you just can't wait for part two can you, Dad?"

"Sunshine Shay Curtis" He barked at me like I was Pony's age. He paused for a second. I could bet anything he was sitting behind his desk at work gnawing on a pen cap. He always did that when he fumed. "People are saying I have a son who committed treason. You write that second part and I swear I will not let you back into my house every again."

"Part two goes to print in two weeks, then part three."

"I will not, I repeat will NOT, have son who commits treason. I brought you up right, and my god you better start acting like it. I'm sorry if you didn't want to go and fight, but it was your patriotic duty."

"You don't know shit." I said and hung up the phone. I looked at my articles. I had a deadline to meet, I put my head on my desk, there was only one way for me to get through this day.



"Jeeze, Pony couldn't you wait until night or early morning to take a run?" Darry hollered.

I rolled my eyes as I brushed passed him to get some water. "Sometimes you just have to run mid day." Everything in nature was against you mid day, but if you got through it okay, then it made you feel tough.

"Yeah, well when you die of heat stroke, I'm not taking you to the hospital?"

"Wouldn't you have to take me to the morgue if I was dead?"

Darry sighed. "Don't give me lip. Look, I have to drop these bills off at the post office. Think you'll be okay for twenty minutes?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I turned the radio on and found some Jimi Hendrix before digging a fork into the chocolate cake.

"That guy sure can play." Darry smacked me on top of the head with the bills. "See ya' later."

I went about eating chocolate cake. I felt bad for Darry; it was like he was hurt and humiliated by Sunny. I couldn't figure out which was more though. I found his newspaper and began to look at the new movie openings. I was getting through the last of the lists, when I heard a gentle humming on the porch. It was Blue Moon, and there was only one person who went around humming blue moon, and that was Sunny. I wished I would have gone with Darry.

I thought about going to my room and hopping out the window and going to the DX. "Hey baby."

My fork slipped out of my hand. I looked up at Sunny. "Hi."

He grinned lopsided. "I'm back."