Happy Belated (a week and a day) Easter! Hope you had a great holiday!
In Hot Water
Chapter Twelve: "Lucky"
Saturday June 4th, 1966
In the past year, the gang had taken way too many trips to the hospital. When Mr. and Mrs. Curtis both died a little over a year ago, then when Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dallas were rescued out of the fire, then Pony passed out from a concussion the next day, and the never ending saga continues. The hospital was practically a second home to the gang. Every turn and twist they knew by heart now, they probably even had better directions than the staff, but that wasn't something you should be proud off. Visiting a hospital was not the most happiest of things.
"Ponyboy Curtis?" Darry asked the lady at the desk with Soda hovering over his shoulder. The minute they got a call they were on the road. They didn't care it was two o'clock in the morning.
The nurse looked up at her desk, raising her eyebrows. She was well aware of the gangs that roam around Tulsa. She worked the nightshift at the hospital long enough. "Yeah, sorry boys but this is a hospital, not some kind of a ranch and it's way past visiting hours anyways."
Darry was about to open his mouth to yell at the nurse behind the desk, but turned around in response to someone calling out his name.
"Darrel Curtis."
Darry and Soda both weren't surprised to see a man they haven't seen in a few months, not since Shane Whitfield was arrested. Detective Kyle Rodgers walked forward towards the Curtis brothers. Him and his partner, Edward Jenkins were in charge of the case right after Derek Sanders died.
"Long time no see Mr. Curtis."
Darry shook the officer's hand firmly. "What happened tonight? Where's my brother?"
"You're brother is fine. We got a call about disturbance-yelling and shouting over by the park, we went to go check it out. Found Shane Whitfield shot, dead, and your brother face down in the fountain, he's fine though, just a minor concussion from hitting his head against the fountain's wall. Lucky we got there in time."
Lucky, yeah right!
"Can we see him?" Sodapop blurted out the question more as a demand.
Rodgers shrugged. "I don't have the authority to give you permission, but his doctor's right over there." The cop pointed to a man a little ways down the hall. The two boys began to take off but Detective Rodgers stopped them in their tracks.
"Wait a second Darrel," he said, pulling out a card from his pocket. "I didn't exactly talk to him, but if he says anything or is ready to explain his side of the story, please call me. By the looks of the scene, it looked like Whitfield committed suicide. Even though the evidence points to that we still need his story before we can actually assume to what the evidence says."
Darry took the card and nodded. "Thank you sir, we'll be in touch."
oOoOo
Soda sat in the chair next to Pony's bed while Darry stood with his arms crossed over his chest leaning against the wall. He had a lot on his mind. Ever since their parents died, ever since that exact moment, everything in that family went downhill. Darry was suppose to be the one to pick it back up and fix the broken pieces as much as he possibly can, but was he really doing a great job? It was his best, but if his best was always someone ending up in a hospital good? Shane Whitfield may have been dead but Darry still felt that his wasn't over. Maybe Ponyboy and Soda were better in a home…
"It's over Darry," Soda said after he saw the look on his older brother's face. "You heard it from the cops. Shane is really dead. He's gone for good now."
Darry shook his head out of his thought, and turned his focus on Soda. "Yeah, I guess he is."
"That's a good thing Dare, he killed himself. He won't ever come after Pony or anyone of us again."
Darry shifted his weight to his over leg. "Why do you think he shot himself? If you were Shane Whitfield would you really commit suicide?"
Soda shrugged. "Gee, I don't know Darry. I'm not some psychopathic murderer!"
"I sure hope you're right about that," Darry joked lightly as Ponyboy shifted in the bed.
"Can I wake him up now?"
Darry shook his head. Pony was absent for two, nearly three days, and the longer Soda went without seeing his younger brother was killing him. Pony might have been asleep right in front of him, but he wasn't awake and talking and that's all the Soda needed. It was all Darry needed too, but Darry knew better to let him sleep.
"When we get home, we should celebrate." Soda nodded to himself. "We'll have chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream and chocolate-"
Darry rolled his eyes as the seventeen year old went on listing various desserts and treats. The doctor said Pony would have to stay over night to make sure nothing was seriously hurt when he hit his head but could go home in the morning. Darry sighed, another trip to the hospital meant another hospital bill, another thing to look forward too. Hopefully Soda was right. Hopefully this was finally over.
Ponyboy's eyes fluttered opened, and Soda practically fell out of his chair. His grin was ear to ear and it was the first time Darry saw him truly smile like that in a while.
"It's about time for you to wake up!" Soda leaped from the floor to the bed pulling Pony into a hug. "I am never letting you out of my sight again!"
"Easy Sodapop," Darry scolded. "He needs to rest."
"I'm fine Darry." Ponyboy smiled at his brother, and Soda smiled too, pulling him into another hug.
"See Dare, he's fine!"
Darry and Soda stayed for a few more minutes before leaving for the night and Pony quickly fell back asleep.
oOoOo
The two brothers were back the first thing that morning. Like last night, they were greeted by Detective Rodgers, but this time his partner, Detective Jenkins was with him too.
"Good morning Mr. Curtis," Rodgers said while shaking Darry's hand. "Long time no see I guess. We were just stopping by to see if your brother was interested in speaking with us."
"I thought I was suppose to call you."
Rodgers nodded. "Yes, yes that was what we had planned, but a second set a of finger prints were pulled off the gun in Shane Whitfield's hand."
"We already checked to see if they matched your brother's," Jenkins said dully. "Good news, they don't, but the bad news is that means there was more people at the scene last night."
"After having someone get a better examine of Whitfield's body, the position Shane was lying in, he wouldn't have been able to shot himself the way he was shot. If your brother has any information, we'd like to hear it as soon as we can. If he wants to talk right now, we could figure out who could've killed Shane Whitfield."
Darry nodded. "He'll talk. I'll make sure of it."
Darry began to take off down the hall, but Rodgers shouted out, stopping him. "It's best if we do it alone. Family members or friends could cause someone to not say the whole story, not wanting the family to know what really happened. If that's alright with you of course…"
"It's fine." Darry nodded again, looking Soda in the eyes whose face turned to worry. " We'll wait right here."
The two detectives nodded and headed toward the room, and Soda looked at Darry once they were out of earshot. "You really think letting them go in alone is a good idea?"
Darry shook his head. "Not really, but they're right. If one of us is in there, it might make Pony want to hold back information. I'd rather have this mess picked up sooner than later. Ponyboy just better corroborate."
oOoOo
Ponyboy jumped when he saw it was Detective Jenkins and Rodgers who entered the room. When he heard the door creak opened, he expected to see his brothers when he looked up, not cops. He was slightly disappointed it was them, actually scratch that, he was very disappointed to seem them over his brothers. His brothers meant he could leave the horrible place filled with so many horrible memories, cops meant he had to talk about what horrible thing happened that put him in such place.
Pony sighed. The sooner he talked the sooner he could leave. He knew though he probably wasn't going to be a big help. Last night… well he had no idea who the other guy was and he didn't even know Shane Whitfield was dead until Soda told him when he woke up.
"Good morning Ponyboy," one of the detectives said cheerfully. Pony forced a smile on his face trying his best to welcomely greet the man like he did to him.
"Hi."
The other detective-Rodgers, pulled out a notepad, and took a seat in the chair occupied by Sodapop the night before. "We would like to talk to you about what happened in the past couple of days- starting with the day you were taken the second time since Shane Whitfield's escape from prison."
Pony talked about the soccer game, and stopped after Two-Bit left to get the ball. He sighed heavily. "After Two-Bit hopped the fence, he was there. He had a gun and told be to keep quiet and he took me to his car and left. He took me to some old abandoned apartment building and we stayed there until last night. Some guy picked us up. I don't know his name, he never said it, but he kept talking-yelling at Shane about Sharon, something about how he wasn't too happy about having her mess to clean up… I dunno.
"He took us to the park, and I kind of figured out what was gonna to happen once we got there. I… I-I didn't resist it either. I didn't fight back, I just… just wanted it to be over, done with. They didn't hesitate to dunk me under the water, than pulling me back up for a second or two before pushing me back into it. Eventually Shane stopped dunking me and it was just that man. Shane was yelling at him. I wasn't paying much attention to what they were saying but I think he was trying to get the man to stop… I don't really know. After that everything just went black. Next thing I know I was in an ambulance."
Rodgers scribbled on his notepad before looking up, pointing the pencil's end in Pony's direction. "You sure that's what happened? Everything?"
Pony hesitated a moment before nodding his head. "Positive. Nothing really happened at the apartment, Shane didn't talk to me about anything at the apartment, and that man didn't really talk to me either. Everything I told you is everything I know."
"About Sharon Whitfield, what did this man mean by 'cleaning her mess up?'"
Pony shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe she got into trouble or did something that wasn't part of their plan. I don't know. I haven't seen Sharon since the night I ran away from the house in the woods."
"We'll figure this out Ponyboy. You'll need to speak to a sketch artist to help identify this man but other than that, I think we're done-"
Pony reached onto the nightstand in his hospital room. "I was bored this morning and figured I'd be questioned sooner or later. I already drew him."
Rodgers took Pony's drawing and unfolded it. He handed it to Jenkins who recognized the image just as quickly as Rodgers did.
"Think it's just some coincidence now?" Rodgers asked his partner and he shook his head.
oOoOo
Kidnapped Victim Found at Last Minute
By Linda James
TULSA-Ponyboy Curtis was found last night, face down in the fountain at Tulsa Park, unconscious. He is still alive currently in a hospital, but Shane Whitfield, the suspect in the kidnapping isn't. Whitfield was found shot. It is still being investigated, but police are thinking suicide was committed after Whitfield thought Curtis was dead. It is unclear what really happened last night at the moment and possibly forever.
Yeah, yeah... I should just stop explaining myself, right? Things just keep coming and going in my life and finals are coming up and errg! I can never get a break. I honestly was going to update yesterday since I just had to finish the last half of the chapter, but I was under server thunder storms watches and warnings and tornado watches... I didn't want my power to go out and not have the chapter saved when I was in the middle of writing it.
Like always, I'll try to update during the weekend, but don't be disappointed when it's not up. At least I'm not like one of those people who update like five times a year, so be grateful of me. I have two meets this week so please make my week better and review. It will be appreciated greatly.
-MLC 99