The next morning, I was suddenly blinded as the sun spontaneously hit me in the face. I threw an arm over my eyes and rolled over on instinct, but then realized too late that was a bad idea as I fell to the floor.

I heard someone chuckle.

"You won't be laughin' when I'm through with you," I said groggily, tossing a pillow towards the window.

"Sure I will," Sodapop grinned, doing a belly-flop onto the bed.

"Where's Red?"

Soda turned sour. "Don't say good mornin' or nothin'. What's the deal with her anyway? Do you fancy her, or...?"

I felt my face get hot. "Never said that, did I?"

Soda frowned. "You don't have to," he said, pulling me up. "It's sort of obvious."

"Well why are you so sour about it anyway?" I asked, throwing the blankets back onto the bed.

"Never said that, did I?" he snapped, grabbing the pillow and throwing it onto the bed. His face softened. "I guess I am bein' a little sore. I don't know why though..."

I stretched. "Shouldn't you be at work today, anyway?" I yawned.

"Nah, it's Sunday. Station's closed on Sundays."

"Oh yeah," I said, as a tantalizing smell met my nose. "Darry making breakfast?"

Soda shook his head. "Nope, Red is. She seems to have way too much fun with it too."

"Sounds like you," I said, walking towards the kitchen, when I realized I could walk towards the kitchen. The floor was spotless, the carpet visible.

"Did..."

"I clean?" Soda cut in. "Yeah, decided to make the little lady's life less hazardous. And ours."

"Huh...it's nice being able to walk in here, instead of hurdling."

Soda laughed. "Yeah, it's real nice."

I went to the kitchen to see Darry chatting animatedly to Red as she balanced a pineapple on her head and flipped an egg. She had all her regular clothes back, and her hair was down, reaching almost her thighs. Why did it get longer every time I looked at it? Then I remembered the pineapple.

"Darry!" I blurted, rushing over to retrieve the pineapple.

He stopped. "What?"

"What the heck are you trying to do, let her scald herself?!" I said, holding out the pineapple.

He stared at in in amazement. "Where did you get a pineapple?"

Darr—" I began, but Red interrupted me.

"You mean, where did I get a pineapple? Well, I have an odd way of acquiring things I want without people noticing."

Darry looked at her in aghast disbelief. "You stole a pineapple? When did you get the chance to steal a pineapple?"

"Correction," Ricky called from the living room. "I stole the pineapple, she said she was hungry for pineapple and..." he shrugged. "I just decided to get one. I was hungry for pineapple too. Hope that doesn't bother you...?"

"Scallywaggin' rogues, the whole lot of 'em," Darry muttered, flipping open the newspaper.

I looked to the counter, remembering the letter lying there that we had gotten yesterday. It completely slipped my mind yesterday after...I glanced over at Red, but she seemed to have no recollections of it, or qualms with life for that matter. Happy-go-lucky, just like Sodapop. Aside from yesterday's events.

I looked up again to find the entire gang there, staring at me, some of them grinning. Glory, I wanted to collapse on the spot.

Two-Bit came to sit on the counter in front of me. "So, Pony, you certainly had a blast yesterday," he mused, wiggling his eyebrows and smirking.

"Shut up, Two-Bit, before I knock that smirk right off your face."

"Well he is right," Steve countered. "I think every one of us saw you and little Red cuddling."

Red turned, frying pan in hand. "What? I heard my name."

"They were talking about you and Ponyboy 'cuddling'," Ricky chirped.

She looked thoughtful for a moment, and the gang watched her with bated breath. Their eyes were wide as saucers, even Darry.

Red turned back to the stove. "For all intents and purposes, I guess you could call it that."

"HAH!" Steve and Two-Bit shouted together.

I didn't know what to say, so I just fell into a chair, stupefied. She hadn't even tried to deny it. Oh golly, this was a mess. I looked to Soda for help, but he looked sorer than ever, and kind of dumbfounded too. Steve and Two-Bit weren't helping matters by dancing around chanting, "Pony has a girlfriend, Pony has a girlfriend," and "Ponyboy and Red, kissin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

Red didn't seem all too keen on that, though, and pulled a mixing bowl and large spoon out of the cupboard. She hit the bowl with the spoon, and that got their attention better than anything. "Okay, Two-Bit, chill. You too, Steve. Sodapop, quit looking like you're on your man-period. Ricky and Darry, thank you for remaining respectful, civil human beings. Steve, Two-Bit; You're embarrassing the living daylights out of Ponyboy, just look at him—" they averted their gaze to me, and began muffling their snickering. "—and I'm not Pony's girlfriend." That shut them up, and I thought we could get back to a normal day before she quietly added, "Not yet, anyways." She gave me a look of evil humor.

Then they broke out cackling again. I went to the kitchen table, and plopped into a chair huffily. Red had set a plate for me, and had made pineapple omelets for everyone. Surprisingly, it was actually really good, even though I had expected it to be kind of gross. But Soda didn't really like omelet, he just ate the one I made from lack of anything better. It seems she must've read my mind then, because she gave him sunny-side up eggs with grape jelly, his favorite. I looked at her confoundedly, and she just shrugged, swinging the empty frying pan around on her finger.

Soda and Darry took seats at the table, while the other guys just sat on the counters and ate. Red sat in between me and Soda (who seemed to have taken Red's words into consideration, and looked remotely cheery), and it looked like she had made about three omelets for herself. Darry and I raised an eyebrow at each other. There was no way she could eat all of that, not a girl that small. But boy, were we wrong. She not only ate it all, but finished before all of us. The rest of the guys realized she was done with her food as she got up and began washing dishes at the sink, and we just sorta sat there with our mouths open.

"Why so quiet?" Red asked.

Soda grinned. "No reason. It's just that we've never seen a girl pack away a meal like that."

Laughter bubbled out of her. "I think that's just because I haven't had a hot meal in..." she looked thoughtful. "...a long time," she finished. "Sorry. Wasn't very ladylike."

"Oh, you're talking to a bunch of oxes who eat like horses," Soda replied.

"I think it's oxen," Darry added as an afterthought.

"Whatever. Red, you don't have to wash dishes," Soda said, standing up with his plate cleared. "That's the rule. Normally, when it's just the three us of, the first one up cooks breakfast and the other two do dishes. Darry and I'll do the dishes."

"Oh, c'mon, after the burden I've been, I insist."

"Nope. Got to abide by the rules, Missy."

She bit her lip, and I think all the guys must've started to smolder. Girls sure can be cute when they're nervous. "Well, then what can I do? Anything outside would be great, I hate bein' cooped up in the house, not that I'm not grateful, but I really do better after goin' outside, I mean—"

"Hush yourself," Darry said, standing with his plate. "I'm sure we can find something, but you gotta be careful outside; the West Side's population has it in for us," he added bitterly. "You'd have to take a couple o' guys with you where you went, which I'll say should be the grocery store. The cupboards are practically bare, and we haven't had the time to shop. It's like we have little demons that eat our food. And their names are Steve, and Two-Bit."

"Hey! What about Ricky and Red?" Steve protested.

"Red is making food," Darry replied, "and Ricky stole that pineapple."

Two-Bit rolled his eyes. "Steal a pineapple and you're golden."

I stiffened. "Don't say that."

Red seemed to know there was something wrong. "What's up, Ponyboy?"

I just shook my head. My eyes stung. Stop. Don't remember. Don't remember. They were all silent for a while.

"Well, what about that letter?" Two-Bit chirped. I had forgotten about it, but now curiosity was stirring amongst the guys.

"Yeah, why don't we have a look?" Ricky added. "Who were those guys anyway?"

"One of the other gangs nearby," Soda said over the clink of plates. "The Shepard outfit. Another one is the them boys from Brumly, and of course there are a couple named gangs around, Tiber Street Tigers, River Kings," he added.

"I've heard of them. I'm just from Ardmore, you know."

"It looks like another gang is starting to form though. There are a bunch of younger guys who gather on street corners on the other side of East. They seem okay though, Stevie and I talked to them a bit. Thank gosh there isn't any rivalry around here."

"I thought you guys didn't get along with the West Side," Ricky wondered thoughtfully.

"That's different," Two-Bit said nonchalantly. "That's a rivalry between social classes, not gangs. This isn't New York. We don't get along with Socs because they're nothing but—" he called them every unprintable name under the sun.

"Hey, watch your vocabulary, we have a lady in our ranks now," Darry reminded him.

Red sighed. "I wish you guys would stop thinking of me as a lady. I'm not like any lady I've ever met. I don't wear dresses or skirts, blubber over guys, or have a love for the color pink. And I don't mind slicing a guy who says otherwise to ribbons."

"Gee, didn't know you were that sensitive about it," Steve muttered.

Red shrugged. "I didn't have time to learn to be a lady as a kid. My dad and my brother left me." she seemed angry as she reminisced. "And my no-good mother didn't give a damn about me after they left, and I eventually left too. I needed to find my brother." She then realized what she said, and clapped her hands over her mouth. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to swear, I don't normally do that—" she stopped.

"It's alright," Soda said, wrapping an arm around her. "Anyone'll slip every once in a while."

Everyone exchanged nonplussed glances, but I just looked down at my worn-out Converses. Steve elbowed me, but I just punched in him the ribs, and I could hear the air escape his lungs. I hit him harder than I thought. Oops, ha-ha, sorry-not-sorry. I felt Steve glaring at me, but I didn't care.

"Where are you from?"

"Pittsburgh," she said after a moment.

Darry raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Pennsylvania? Aren't you awfully far from home? How'd you manage that?"

Red shrugged. "I'm sneaky, and I could talk someone into giving me their wallet if I wanted to. It was easy to hop trains, hitch rides. There's lots of trains in Pittsburgh, and hopping was easy. I did what my brother said he would do: get as far as I could in any direction but east. East would be too close, take me to the seaboard, and then I'd only be able to go south to get as far as possible. Then I'd eventually reach the coast there. What can I say, I'm stubborn. I decided to go west. I figured that's where my brother would have gone. He wanted to get as far from home as possible. For a while though, I know he went north, he had to, at least that's what my lead told me."

"Who was your lead?" Ricky asked. He seemed to know some of this already.

"A hobo," Red grinned. "He saw my brother hopping trains, and I never would have known, except he said we had the same eyes, and at the time, the same hair color. A lead in New York City brought me to Oklahoma, and a lead in"

"At the time? What color was that?" Two-Bit asked.

"This one," Red replied, reaching behind her and snatching a piece of hair. "The white on the end, that was what color our hair was, just like our mother. That's why my hair is so long, why I never cut it. It started to grow out darker and darker, but I loved the blonde. The only thing I didn't like was that I looked exactly like my mother. The brown is the color of my father's hair, and the gold flecks in my eyes. My mother always called him her "Golden-Eyed Cowboy." He loved anything to do with the rodeo, the country, and of course horses. He always wanted to get a place in the country, but we could never afford it."

I looked over at Darry and his face was pale. He seemed really scared, or upset, or disbelieving, I couldn't tell. The other guys noticed too, because Ricky asked, "Hey Darry, what's the score?"

Darry shook his head and looked at Soda. He cocked his head in confusion. I glanced over at Two-Bit, and his face was pale too. He locked eyes with Darry and they seemed to have a silent argument. Darry seemed to win, because then Two-Bit nodded in resignation.

"Well, Ponyboy, why don't you read that letter, and let us know if there's anything worth sharing."

"Why does he get to read it?"

"Because it was given to him," Sodapop answered shortly.

Two-Bit tossed me the envelope, and I sliced open the top with my switchblade. When I glanced up, everyone's eyes were trained on me. Darry waved me on, "Hurry up, kid."

I shook out the envelope; a paper and a key fell out onto the table. Steve tried to snatch the paper, but Darry got it first, and handed it back to me. "Thanks," I said.

I opened up the paper.

Hey guys,

Surprise! This is gonna be unexpected...but I got a newsflash for ya!

I'm not dead! I think we should celebrate. But we can't. And I haven't told you who I am yet either, so...that's complicating. Well, I really want to tell you, but I can't use my name or yours, I'm in more trouble than I've ever been in, but I gotta say, it's not something I wasn't expecting, it's been something after me for years. They got me, that's what happened, when I was shot, it wasn't with bullets. It was tranquilizer. Mild moose tranquilizer. I needed to be shot with mild moose tranquilizer. I was out for like a week, but, ya know, moose tranquilizer. I busted and killed a guy trying, but they were torturing me in there. The ringleader of those cuckoos was my uncle! Can you believe that? My uncle tried to kill me, sorta. Right now I'm in hiding in Oklahoma City, but don't come looking for me, I'll be heading for Ardmore in the morning, but don't go there either, I might not make it that far. I got a guy to tip them off that I headed for Dallas, Texas (see the funniness of that yet?). Ah, Keith, good memories! Not really. I'll admit...I miss you guys. There, I said it. That's enough gush, gotta go.

From,

Some Cowboy (hah) That's A City in Texas

I felt the blood drain from my face. No. It couldn't be.

Before I could block it this time, memories flooded into my head. I remembered him so well, even after all the time I tried to forget. He had crumpled under a streetlight, wanting to die. He had always gotten what he wanted. Just not that time. There was an exception to everything.

"Ponyboy? Ponyboy? Are you okay? Pony!"

I didn't realize I had passed out, and Red was over me, looking scared out of her wits. On either side of her were Darry and Sodapop, and the gang was around them. I felt the letter in my hand, and how it was crumpled in my fist.

"Oh Pony, are you okay? Say something!"

Red was right over me. Her eyes are so cold...so beautiful and cold. Like ice. Ice filled with bits of gold. And leaves. But mostly ice. She smelled like lemon and orange—but mostly orange.

"I'm okay. I'm okay." I sat up, and almost fell over again, but Red grabbed my shoulders and steadied me. She was as cold as her eyes. She was ice-cold. Why was she so cold? Why did she have circles under her eyes? She looked tired. "You don't look okay, Red."

"You don't look okay, Ponyboy," Darry said worriedly. He put a hand on my forehead. It felt nice. "And you don't feel okay either."

"Red is colder than you. I think Red is sick." Darry looked puzzled for a second, but then put a hand on her forehead too. He flinched, and so did she. "Glory, kid. You're colder than an ice-cube. All I got's a bunch o' sick kids."

"I'm not sick," I protested. "Here," I said gruffly, throwing the letter at him. "Read that. Just you and Two-Bit. Then you can decide if the others can read it. I'm gonna go lie down, my head hurts."

Soda helped me up, and as I staggered to my room, I heard Darry say to him, "Call the doctor. For both of them."

I collapsed onto my bed, and closed my eyes for a minute. When I opened them again, Red was sitting at the end of the bed with her arms around her ankles, looking worried and pensive. When I opened my eyes again, the doctor was there, and he was taking Red's temperature, then looking at the thermometer, shaking his head. He took my temperature too, and height and weight and a bunch of other stuff. He talked to Darry for a while, and I heard my name and Red's name a lot. The doctor woke me up again, and shined a light into my eyes, and rubbed my head funny, then nodded at Darry. I wanted to ask what they were talking about, but I was tired. Red was standing in the corner looking exhausted. I tuned in at the last minute to the conversation, with Darry saying, "Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies."

The doctor shrugged. "Alright. I can live with that," and he left.

Darry knelt next to me, looking worried. "How are ya, little buddy?"

"Tired. And I ache all over." I didn't mention that I could feel my heartbeat all over or that my stomach was ready to heave up my breakfast, or that I was light-headed. "What's wrong with me?"

"Doc says you got the flu, and you kindled your concussion back."

"What's wrong with Red? Why's she so cold?"

"The doctor thinks she has pneumonia, and hypothermia is just a symptom."

"But..."

"What is it, Ponyboy?"

"Doesn't pneumonia kill people?"

Darry laughed softly, but I could hear worry under it. "Only sometimes. And we caught it early enough that she should be okay once it blows over."

"Where is she?"

"We put her in Soda's old room, where he slept before you started havin' them night terrors."

"Oh. Okay."

He patted me gently, "You're both gonna be alright."

"Where's Sodapop?"

"Sittin' in the kitchen, frettin' like a mama goose. I should probably let him in now, he's mad that I wouldn't let him in while the doctor was here. He's worried sick." Darry went over to the door to get Soda, but he was standing right there, and he looked as worried as all get out, and I kind of felt bad.

He rushed over, and I could hear Two-Bit and the other guys talking in the kitchen. "Aww, Ponyboy...it's just one thing after another with you."

"It sure is," Two-Bit said, now in the doorway, lighting up a cigarette. I could use a smoke right now. "His guardian angel is either lazy, stupid, or on extended vacation. Or all three."

Darry pulled the cigarette out of Two-Bit's mouth and ground it into his jacket. "Don't smoke in the kid's room when he's sick."

Soda just sat there, stroking my hair and looking worried. At one point, I nodded off, and that was a big mistake.

You know how when you're sick, they say you have vivid dreams and hallucinate? Well, I had this one nightmare I always get, but I can never remember what it's about. I bolted upright, sweating like someone had dumped a bucket of water over me and hollering my head off. Soda ran in, and he shushed me and talked quietly to try to calm me down. Turns out it was only nine in the evening, and I had slept all day.

After he hushed me up, I couldn't stop shivering, so he just climbed into bed with me and hugged me. "Gosh, Pony, you sure are burning up."

But I fell asleep before I could answer.

Through the night, I must've woken up a hundred times. About the fifth, time Red was there, and I was in between her and Soda. I woke up again, and now she was in the middle, and her arms were wrapped around my neck. She looked really young when she slept—I guess everyone does. The next time I woke up, my arms were wrapped around her waist, and her arms were around my neck, and for some reason, I didn't feel the need to do anything about that setup. But the next time, she was hugging Sodapop and he had his arm over both our necks. Another time, they were both hugging each other, and I felt funny about that. I don't know how I felt, but it wasn't good. But the time after that, she was curled up in a ball against me and I had my arms around her, and I wasn't so sore at Soda anymore. It helped when I looked over at him and he was braiding her hair. I didn't know if he was awake or asleep, or if he even knew how to braid, but I didn't question it. Red was still cold, just not as cold. She felt nice. She sighed happily, and I dozed off again.