Here is a long overdue update! If you haven't already, run along and go check Chapter 3 and the ending-I tweaked it just a bit, and it will make more sense with where this chapter begins. Thanks for reading! Please review, so I can see how I'm doing!
"PLEASE, July," begged Tulsa, "Let that dang sun leave us alone for just one day!"
As requested, July had graciously allowed the sun to hide behind the clouds for a day, but the humidity was miserable, pressing down on every soul, weighing wearily on every living thing. Even the plants drooped. It was the kind of weather that transformed your whole day, the kind that would make you remember July 15, 1966. The rain would be coming soon, I was sure...but I decided to take a chance and take my taco stand out anyway.
It seems that on days like these, grey and gloomy, things often don't go as planned. I had run almost completely out of lemonade mix, and all we had left in the house was grape Kool-Aid mix. I ran out of meat for my tacos, and was left with a bunch of cheese tacos. Charles had a baseball game to go to, so he wasn't able to help me move all of my supplies down to the park. Though these things were discouraging, I wasn't going to let silly little problems like that stop me from having a good day!
The way I see it, we have two options for our interactions with other people in this world: we can either make someone's day better or make it worse. There is no in between. Even causing someone to crack a smile can make their day better, and a harsh word laid heavy on their heart can make it worse. Our faces are a doorway into our souls, and our words are the outpouring of our hearts. Oppressive and overcast days like this and any other time where we ourselves our struggling can make it harder to intentionally try to make someone's day better. But we must always try.
My sweet customers were few that day. Even the most avid of walkers decided to remain indoors, and the babysitters and children that usually paid me visits and brought me pretty flowers had done the same. There was the odd dog walker, but other than that, only the construction workers came to see me, and they looked absolutely spent already. There was no laughter and joking among them as they dragged their feet over to me. One by one they bought their lunches and leaned up against trees, fanning themselves. Darrel was last in line.
My heart had been heavy long before the humidity had kicked in. Ever since our date, Darrel had failed to directly acknowledge me. I had tried saying hi, I had tried striking up a conversation, but he responded shortly and kept his head down.
I thought our date had gone well, from the butterflies it gave me to think back on it. However, I was now second guessing myself. Even after going over every detail with Louise and Grace and them telling me "It was fine, Caroline! You worry too dang much," I was skeptical.
Darrel continued to visit my stand with all of the boisterous, sailor-mouthed construction workers. He got his usual tacos with cream and chiles and a cup of lemonade. But he never sat by me and chatted anymore, never said more than hi, never even looked too hard at me. He sat with the others in the corner of the park. The first day, they had teased him loudly, and pestered, "Why ain't you sittin' with your girlfriend? Y'all fight or somethin'?" After he muttered something to the effect of "knock it off" and refused to look at them, they relieved him, not before looking quizzically over at me.
It was now Friday, a week since our date, and he had kept up with this act. I wasn't the type to get all mopey and brokenhearted over a guy, but I couldn't understand why he was suddenly treating me this way. I thought he had liked my company, I know I liked his. He was a real good listener, and so handsome. His dark brown hair contrasted with his pale eyes, and because his face was usually solemn, his smile was a sight to see. And besides that, he was kind and understanding, which puzzled me as to why he was acting this way..He didn't even give me an explanation for why he didn't want to speak to me and what was the strangest thing was he wouldn't even look me in the eye.
I tried not to let it affect the way I treated him. Maybe I could bring him back around. "Hi Darrel!" I smiled at him, waiting for him to respond.
"Hey," he said, his lovely eyes down where I couldn't see them. "Two tacos and a lemonade, please."
As I prepared his food, I kept trying to start conversation. "It sure is hot, isn't it?" No response. "Y'all deserve a nice long break in a pool somewhere! Wouldn't that be nice?" Nothing. I swallowed and mustered up all the courage I could. "Well, Darrel, I really enjoyed our date last week. Maybe we could do it again sometime?" I added a shaky smile. His hesitation made me unsure whether I needed to be hopeful or concerned.
He quickly grabbed the tacos and his drink. His sea-colored eyes finally met mine, and they felt like nails. "I can't, Caroline. I'm real sorry." His tired body shuffled away, not looking back. I sighed. I had been blessed with persistence and a positive attitude, but I wasn't sure if there was any hope for this.
I think that men are just as much of busybodies as ladies are. As I watched Darrel head back toward the other workers, I noticed that they had been watching us silently, not even taking a bite. Once they realized I had noticed, one of them quickly said, "So, Bob, how about them crazies on the six o' clock last night?" They all leapt to chime in, pretending like they hadn't seen a thing.
"No, Gracie, you should always, always, always think before you speak. That's how you get into trouble," Louise retorted as we hopped off the bus. As we neared the entrance to the drive-in, she leaned close to me. "Is this okay?" Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at Grace, who was waving and giggling at some baby greaser and his leather jacket clad friends. Louise was going to make a great mom someday-even when she was talking to someone else, she always had an eye on the baby. Maybe that came with being an older sister. I nodded in response to her. "Are you sure? 'Cause we can go home and make brownies, paint our nails or somethin'-"
"No, this is wonderful. I promise." Louise studied me for a moment, looking straight into my eyes, searching for any hint of uneasiness. "I need this time. We need this time. Sister dates are few and far between!" She decided to believe me and paid for both mine and Grace's way into the drive-in. She locked arms with both of us, Grace smiling at her, thinking that she did it to be affectionate. Not that it wasn't, but it was mostly for protection. Louise had been the mom of her group of friends, and they had fallen into some trouble with guys before, real young. The kind where the boy you thought was gonna marry you leaves you on your own with a precious little life growing inside your belly.
The blessed rain had come and relieved us from the oppressive moisture in the air, and gave way to a pleasantly cool breeze. After my strange encounter with Darrel at the taco stand, my sisters had been informed and insisted on taking me out to take my mind off of it. They knew me well; when something happens, I need distraction, not picking it apart piece by piece. Also, Grace had been dying to see Batman.
Before finding our seats in the chairs (Jorge had the car) we stopped by the concessions to get some snacks. Louise and I collected the popcorn, Coke, and candy to share. Grace tagged along and kept suspiciously glancing behind her, to the point where she was keeping the line from moving.
"Hey, sister, what's the hold-up?" A gruff voice growled from behind us.
"Grace! Keep moving, honey!" Louise called over her shoulder as she went to pay, warily eyeing whoever was distracting Grace. I gently pushed her forward as I turned to pull Grace along with me.
Grace wasn't the only one staring at this boy; he was a real looker, and I saw Soc and greaser girl alike making eyes at him. However, he seemed to only have eyes for me. They were narrowed as he tried to place me, and then his eyes lit up. I wondered how he could look so unlike his brother and still be related to him.
"You're Caroline!" Sodapop Curtis exclaimed, grinning at me in a way where I thought the heavens must have opened. "Thanks for savin' me that one time." He turned to the friends who were with him. "This was the girl Darry was talkin' about who drove me half 'cross town on her handlebars!"
His stocky friend leaning on the counter next to him had hair the color of a rooster, and hooted at his comment, sounding just like one. "You shoulda got a medal for that stunt, babe. Those ain't no normal Good Samaritan tricks."
"She's gotta be a saint or somethin', goin' on that date with Superman," quipped Soda's friend who had an interesting nose. I wondered if someone had socked him, as it affected the way he spoke. It sounded like he was talking with his fingers pinching it. Around his nose, it looked a little yellow, like bruises do when they're mostly healed.
The cashier had known Louise from high school, and while the boys paid, they chattered about one of their classmates who had recently married a senator. "I can't have been that much of a saint, he didn't seem to like our date." I was a little surprised that they knew about it, so I wondered if they might have more information to give me. Grace leaned in earnestly.
Soda looked sheepish. "Naw, it wasn't that he didn't like it. He-"
"Okay, girls, where are we sittin'?" Louise asked, offering Grace some popcorn. She didn't realize she had interrupted Soda. I was so surprised that he was going to tell me about it, that thoughts of the sister date were put to the side for a moment.
"Y'all find a spot, I'll meet you there." Louise trusted me and allowed it without question, but when I saw her drag Grace away, she began peppering her with questions. I turned back to Soda, trying not to seem too eager. There seemed to be hope! "What is it, then?" He looked a little hesitant, and his friends looked at me like they didn't know why I cared so much. "Listen, I don't know if this is strange or not, but I really like your brother and I want to get to know him better. And I thought he felt the same about me! I know it's weird that I'm some stranger saying all this, but I really do want to know."
Nosy sneered. "You really see somethin' in Darry?"
"Shut up, Steve," Sodapop waved his comment off. "Okay. I'll tell ya. Come sit with us, Two-Bit's been waitin' to see Batman since the newsreels." His rooster friend did look pretty excited and found a seat toward the front, but not in the front, because he wanted to put his feet up on the dusty old seat in front of him.
We had to talk quietly because there were people there to actually watch the movie and not just socialize. "I'm just gonna give it to you straight. I don't talk to nobody about this all that much, and you don't know us real well. But I've heard a little bit about you, and I think you could be real good for Darry." Sodapop's eyes beamed at me, and I felt just a little bit hopeful. At least I had the brother's approval, whatever direction this was going.
Soda took a deep breath and played with the end of his too long navy shirt. "My parents died five months ago on the seventeenth," he started. My heart sank. As I looked at him, I figured this was still a fresh wound. Two-Bit, who was on his other side, threw an arm around the back of his seat and patted Sodapop on the shoulder, without taking his eyes off the screen. My heart warmed just a bit at their friendship. "There's just Darry, me, and my kid brother, Ponyboy. Darry takes care of me and Pony-the courts wanted to send us to a boys' home." I couldn't believe that Darrel was twenty, and taking care of two teenagers. I hardly knew how to take care of myself!
"Anyway, they decided that we could stay together, but they said if anything happens-one of us gets in trouble with the police, gets hurt, whatever-that they'll split us up. There's a social worker who comes by sometimes, they check up on us, make us know they're watchin'. Darry's been bustin' his back trying to show them that he's responsible, and he's real protective of me and Ponyboy. He works six days a week, makes sure he always knows where we are, and doesn't let us get into any kind of trouble." He paused for a minute. "He's a lot harder on Ponyboy, though."
"How old is Ponyboy?" I asked. Saying his name out loud felt so strange. Darrel, Sodapop, and Ponyboy? What happened between Darrel and Sodapop?
"He'll be fourteen in September. He's gettin' to be at that age where he can mostly take care of himself, but he still don't know much about the world and what people can be like, and don't really use his head," Soda admitted. "Darry's afraid he'll get in with the wrong crowd, make some bad choices, ruin his chances at makin' somethin' of himself."
"He's just a baby," I agreed, thinking about Grace and understanding a little.
Two-Bit chuckled. "We're already greasers, how much worse can you get?" He crumpled up his popcorn bag and threw it against the breeze, which was getting steadily cooler.
Soda reached over to steal some of Steve's popcorn. Through his chewing, he continued. "Anyway, that night when y'all went out on your date, Ponyboy and our friend Johnny got into a bit of a scuffle with some Socs. Nothin' big, they weren't jumped or anything," He gritted his teeth and shook his head, "but they could've. Darry was so mad, madder than I've ever seen him. He was mad at Ponyboy, but he was more mad at himself." Soda turned to face me. He was one of those people that sometimes kept eye contact with you until you felt squirmy. "He really does like you, Caroline. He's told me about you. I haven't seen him like this over anybody. But he's in a fight with himself and his feelings. He feels like since that happened and he was on that date with you, that havin' a girl he might not be as responsible. He might be distracted from watchin' me and Pony, and we could get thrown in a boys' home because of him."
"Aw, he'll be just fine," Two-Bit piped up. "That's what he's got us for. Shoot, I'm with Ponyboy most of the time, I can watch out for the kid!"
"But are you sober?" Steve muttered from behind his hand. Those two had a short argument while Soda agreed, "It's true. Our friends look out for us an awful lot. And I can look after myself. Darry needs to have some fun sometimes."
"And he can! He can't just work and worry all the time. He's not even with y'all all the time to follow you around and make sure you're not getting in any trouble. The world won't end if he takes a break." The wheels in my head started turning as I imagined ways I could help the Curtis family, ways to cheer up Darrel and distract him from the worries no one should have when they're twenty years old. He was on his way to going gray so fast it would make his head spin. "I like Darrel a lot. I'd love to get to know him better."
"Good luck with that. Darry's harder than stone most of the time," Two-Bit explained, "doesn't like to open up to anyone much."
"We'll see," I said, a smile slowly spreading across my face. Sodapop had one that mirrored it. The gears were turning in his head, I could see, and his confidence and excitement gave me hope. Darrel Curtis made my heart flutter with lavender butterflies and that was not something I wanted to lose.