It only got more and more hot out as the month passed by.
As the hands on the clock spun, more and more papers were sent to the state regarding Two-Bit, and the state sent back nothingness.
"He he tried to kill a man, and there's nothing we can do to send him back."
The director of the facility was so tired of us trying to bring back our friend, he sent us a simple, angry, informal letter.
Cherry's heart pounded when she held it in her hands, and she ran straight into my arms.
"We're getting out of here." She shivered. "Now."
We knew this man couldn't be further from the truth, and there was nothing we could do about Two-Bit.
Or was there? On that sweltering July day, we finally sped off out of Tusacaloosa, and past the Oklahoma boundaries. We thought about Two-Bit and the news of impending war on the radio.
We feared for the worst; Cherry changed the station.
It was The Beatles again.
"They ain't tough!"
It wasn't a song we ever heard before, and we tuned into it, turning the radio as loud as we could.
"There's nothing you can do that can't be done."
My heart leaned in the opposite direction; there was no way to save our friend. There was no way to turn back for my brothers. It was impossible,
"Nothing you can sing that can't be sung."
Cherry's voice wasn't singing along to this song. She knew none of the words.
"Nothing you can say, but you can learn how to play the game."
Cherry was in the driver's seat, and I felt we both wondered the same thing.
The game of life?
None of us succeeded. Nobody got out safe, and nobody had it easy.
Johnny lost all of his cards due to his selflessness. Dallas rolled snake eyes due to his loyalty. My parents lost due to their own caution; I lost my innocence. Cherry lost her identity. Steve lost his footing, and sadly, in an ironic twist, Two-Bit failed a simple test.
A test simulated with unfair questions. A simple act to scare a man away turned into a real flesh and blood fight. Two stabs in the chest for each man resulted in a criminal offense and a life in institution.
To prove sanity in both ends, each man had to taken a spoken test. The Soc man, the one who started the fight, passed. Two-Bit failed.
The game of life wasn't at all a game anyone won. And I knew that the ring burning a hole in my pocket wouldn't make things much easier.
"It's easy."
A hitchhiker adorned in scrubs lifted his thumb high up in the air. Cherry pulled over a little ways away and summoned the man to the car.
He hobbled into the back seat, brushing his hair back and taking a deep breath.
"Hey, Pony." The man said. With his face covered in stubble, I had absolutely no clue who he was. Then, it hit me.
"Two-Bit! How'd you get out?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "All you need is love. I knew you wanted me back, and I made sure I'd do it for ya'. Remember what you told me earlier... About Sherri."
He was the only one I could trust with the ring, and as the Beatles repeated themselves on the radio, it felt like the perfect time to ask.
"Cherry, will you marry me?"
The world has begun to spin around me instead of around the sun. Her shock and her laughter along with Two-Bit's presence, made me feel more alive than I ever had before.
"Yes!" She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a big kiss on the lips. She slid the red ruby in her finger and then kept on driving again, right on forward to California.
"There's nothing you can know that isn't known. Nothing you can see that isn't shown. There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be, It's easy."
Seeing the world flash by, I figured I agreed.
"All you need is love."