It had been an hour after we left the station, an hour since I'd seen my big brother last. The train was rattling and making loud whistles every once in a while, leaving long trails of grayish-black puffs of smoke. The train looked uglier than heck on the inside, with the faded brown colored carpet(of which look liked someone had poured coffee all over it and missed spots) and the worn out misshapen seats. There wasn't a lot of people on the train, but maybe that was because it was still early on in the morning.
Two-Bit was nowhere to be found, but I bet you anything he found some cute girl off in the other section of the train to talk to. Soda was sleeping with a sliver of drool creeping its way down the corner of his mouth. I gave a small, short laugh and leaned over. I gently wiped the drool away from his mouth, tiredly, managing to not wake him from his slumber. I wiped my hand on my jeans and continued to stare out the window, observing the crystal blue skies tainted with the golden outskirts of the beautiful sunrise. The sky was spotted with thin strips of off-white clouds and I could see a flock of birds fly in a V shape in the same direction as where the train was headed. I sighed. If I could've watched the sun rise and set over and over again, I would've. It always took my mind off of whatever the task was at hand. Soda had told me to get some rest because we wouldn't be getting off the train for a long while, but as always, I didn't do it.
The rolling green fields whizzed by me, and I could see some livestock and horses fenced in, as the train went on. At times I could spot houses, both off in the distance and just down the many assorted gravel roads, both large two story, beautifully painted houses that gleamed in the sunlight, and old, broken-down houses that looked as if they were going to fall apart at any given minute. Sometimes the scenery outside would be blurred by the oddly shaped circles of fog that my breath produced, so I had to wipe it down with my sleeves, even though I knew that it would soon get fogged up again after I had cleared it up. I had an odd flashback of when my parents used to take us(Darry, Soda, and I) camping in Iowa. How I loved to fog up the windows and try to stencil out the background, unaware that it was impossible to do so because the train was moving(but I was little and I didn't know any better).
I breathed on the window and started writing. At first I didn't know what I was writing out, but then I realized that I was spelling out Darry's full name: DARREL SHAYNNE CURTIS. My heart started aching badly and I gave a soft cry when the writing started to go away. I felt someone wrap their arms around my neck and I turned to see Soda looking at me with a sad smile upon his face.
"I thought I told you to get some sleep?" he asked as he fixed my hair up a little bit.
"I guess it just slipped my mind…" I answered and looked down at the ground. Soda sighed and messed my hair up again, causing me to laugh and mess his hair up in return.
"I swear… sometimes you're more scatterbrained than Two-Bit!!!" Soda said in between giggles as he sat up and stretched.
"ya and I swear the next time I find your creepy saliva peeking out at me when you're sleeping at a public transport, I won't clean you up like a baby!" I snapped, somewhat offended about the comment that he made about me. Soda stared at me and quickly wiped his mouth with his hand, looking a little embarrassed, then he turned to me. I knew he was going to make some smart-aleck remark about the way I looked, but Two-Bit came strolling in with an apple in his mouth. He took the apple out and threw it up in the air, which ended up bouncing off of the top of Soda's head and dropping to the ground. Two-Bit froze in place, probably thinking that because you were still meant that no one would know it was you who did it. I sighed; typical Two-Bit.
"OW!!" Soda hissed, rubbing his head, then he bent down slowly and picked the apple up. He turned and stared at Two-Bit with a look that clearly stated "you are the STUPIDEST person I've ever had for a friend." Two- Bit sat down in a seat across from us, ignoring Soda when he rolled his eyes, and took another apple out of his pocket. He tossed the apple to me, and I barely caught it, then took yet another apple and repeated the action with Soda. I started munching away at the apple, realizing how hungry I was. Soda turned the apple in his hand, looking at it suspiciously. He gave Two-Bit a curious look, cocking an eyebrow.
"I promise you, it aint poisoned…" Two-Bit said in a bored tone, taking out his new black-handled switchblade(he bought this one a couple months after the other one was disposed of by the police since they found it with Dally)and started polishing it with a dirty rag. I stopped eating the apple.
"But did you-" I started to say when Two-Bit cut me off.
"YES!! I did pay for it…" Two-Bit then shook his head and muttered something bitterly underneath his breath, but lay down in the seat and continued to polish his switchblade. I just ate the apple anyways, and pretty soon Soda shrugged his shoulders and took a bite out of his apple too.
The train finally arrived at our stop. It had gotten much brighter and hotter outside. Soda had told me to put my hood up, so that no one would recognize us or remember us if and when I came up in the news. Of course he and Two-Bit did the same thing, and we lugged our bags off the train, trying not to bump into other passengers getting off and boarding onto the train. I searched around for a clock to look at the time, and I could see one that was huge and was thick with a black outline sitting at the top of a tall, square brick column that read 12:34. Wow, I thought, noon already. When I looked around, I thought I lost Soda and started to panic but then I saw him ducking behind the big building, and I quickly followed.
When we reached the top of the grassy meadow(after we had bought two loaves of bread, a block of cheese, and twelve bottles of water) , I could see an old, dirty and abandoned trailer, with a faded CURTIS scrawled on the side in sharpie. I smiled. What good memories this place reminded me of. I looked at the patches of small white, purple and yellow flowers spread out across the field, remembering how Darry and dad used to play football out here, yelling, laughing and wresting with each other on the ground until mom came out and called them in for supper. I looked over at the tall, thin trees that lined up side by side a couple feet away from the trailer, and laughed aloud.
"What?" Soda asked, giving me a funny look.
" 'member when we dared each other to go to the bathroom in the woods over there?" I said in between laughs, pointing to a specific group of trees behind the trailer. Soda burst out into laughter and put his hand up to his stomach.
"Ya, I remember that… Oh man, mom and dad just about flipped a switch when I said you were going in…" Soda continued to laugh, and sighed. Two-Bit looked at us both with a look that had a mixture of disgust and puzzlement in it. I hitched my bag on my back and ran down the hill to my trailer, laughing all the way; for the first time since I was peacefully asleep with Soda's arm across my neck last night, I felt calm and happy with myself.
I opened the door and threw my bag in, which was followed by a huge crashing sound(of which I flinched at). I slowly climbed the stairs into the trailer and looked around. The smell wasn't too bad, and it was surprisingly cool and pleasant in here. Everything looked pretty decent, the kitchen area, the table and the rooms. THE ROOMS!!! I ran in to the bedroom where me, Soda, and Darry used to sleep when we came. It looked just the same as we left it; neat and tidy. I sat down on the huge bed and let out a sigh of content. Then I got up and went into the small hall area where Soda and Two-Bit were standing, looking around.
"Not too bad…" Two-Bit said, slowly smiling. Soda shook his head, put the food down on the counter and made his way over to me. He then put his arm around me and let out a sigh similar to the one I had made not even a minute ago.
"Well, you're gonna be here for a while Pone… I'm a be leaving tomorrow morning.." Soda said slowly. I felt my eyes get wide, my heart started pounding faster than its usual pace.
"What…!?!" I said, shaking. Soda looked down at me and hugged me fiercely.
"It'll all be over before ya know it!" He said, trying to calm me down. I could feel tears streaming down my face but I stopped after I saw the hurt expression on Soda's face when he saw me crying. "Oh, Ponyboy, I wish I could stay, but I only came along with to make sure you got here safely…" I nodded my head and looked at Two-Bit. He was trying to balance the block of cheese on the tip of his nose. I chuckled.
"I guess I have Two-Bit here to entertain me…" I said smiling as Two-Bit dropped the cheese onto his foot, yelped and almost stomped on the cheese in frustration, had he not looked at me and Soda, gave a small, uncomfortable laugh , and picked the cheese up. Soda, again, rolled his eyes and loped to our bedroom and I stepped outside for some summer air. This was surprisingly much nicer than in Oklahoma… but I really wanted to go home.