Author's Note: Umm, okay… so I wrote the majority of this chapter and then something dawned on me. They didn't have MRI machines in the 60s. They came about in the late 70s. I had a big conundrum and couldn't figure out a way around it. So will you join me in pretending that it was invented ten years earlier? Please? I love this scene and I don't want to have to cut it. Haha. I hope that doesn't bother you guys too much. I usually try and keep this as accurate to the time period as possible and I hope that pointing this out helps to not discredit my intelligence. :)
Also, side note on a completely different subject… did anyone else know that there was a short lived television show back in the early 90s based on the characters in the Outsiders? I recently discovered this. I watched the first episode on YouTube last night. It's pretty good, but the cast is definitely not as good as the movie (missing Patrick Swayze and Rob Lowe especially) but the plot was good, though not as awesome as the original story in my opinion. It's worth a look anyway as long as your expectations are too high (though who knows, you may love it! haha), just search "The Outsiders TV Show." Just thought I'd share! Fun fact!
Anyway… please remember to review!
Chapter Twenty-Four
Anxiety
Darry was digging around in his closet looking for a bandage to wrap Soda's sprained wrist with when he accidentally knocked over a few of his old metal hand weights that had been sitting on a shelf a few feet off the ground. He managed to pull his foot away just in time and the weights crashed to the floor. He was about to go back to searching for the bandage when he heard Soda calling to him, sounding panicked. Darry was confused for a moment before he realized that the crash may have startled his brother. As this realization dawned on him he rushed back out to the living room.
Darry entered the room just in time to see Soda collapse to the floor. He cursed loudly as his stomach dropped. He rushed to Soda's side.
"Soda? Soda can you hear me?" he said quickly as he turned Soda over. Soda's eyes were closed but his breathing was steady. There was no question as to what Darry had to do as he jumped up and ran to grab his keys before returning to his brother's side. He leaned down and slowly picked up Soda in his arms, grimacing slightly as a sharp pain flew through his back. His nineteen-year-old brother wasn't exactly light and having to lift him so much wasn't really doing wonders for Darry's back. It wasn't like when he had carried Pony around when he had been sick when he was fourteen.
As he carefully maneuvered himself and his brother through the front door Soda let out a light moan and his eyes slowly blinked open. "Darry?" he mumbled.
"Hey little buddy," Darry said gently. "You passed out. I gotta take you to the hospital and get you checked out."
A hint of anxiety flew through Soda's eyes. "No, I'm fine Darry, really," he insisted weakly.
"You pass out, you go to the hospital," Darry said firmly as he approached the truck. "That's the deal." He paused for a moment at the truck, realizing there was no way he could get the door open without risking dropping Soda. "I'm gonna have to set you down for a second, okay?"
Soda nodded vaguely and Darry slowly lowered his legs down to the ground, keeping a firm grip on his upper body to keep him upright. Soda leaned on him heavily and winced slightly. Darry reached out and pulled open the passenger side door to the truck. Then he carefully helped Soda climb up into it before shutting the door behind him. He walked around to the other side and as he opened the door he saw that Soda was resting his head against the window of the passenger door and his eyes were closed again.
"Soda?" Darry said worriedly as he climbed up into the driver's seat.
"M'fine," Soda mumbled without opening his eyes. "My head just hurts a little."
Darry sighed, not mentioning the fact that he clearly wasn't fine. He started up the car and headed in the direction of the hospital. The entire drive there he couldn't stop beating himself up over this whole situation. Soda had been doing so well the past couple weeks. Darry should have been a lot more careful, he should have made sure the railing on the porch was stable since Soda had to rely on it so much. He also should have taken Soda to the hospital right away, despite his brother's protests. Everyone else had wanted him to take Soda to the hospital, but he had given in so easily to Soda's pleading, just wanting to make him happy.
It was when they made it to the hospital that Darry realized that in his rush he hadn't thought to bring Soda's cane with them. He cursed himself yet again. He climbed out of the truck and walked back around to the passenger's side. Soda sat up slightly as Darry opened his door.
"Sorry, little buddy," he said gently, unsure how Soda was going to take this. "But I forgot to bring your cane with us."
Soda sighed lightly, but didn't appear agitated. "S'ok," he said. Then he looked up at Darry with tired eyes. "I don't feel good." He sounded so young just then.
"I know," Darry said sympathetically. After playing football for so long he knew all about concussions. Not to mention when Pony had been sick two years ago. He knew that headache, dizziness, nausea and sensitivity to light were all pretty common side effects of concussions and not necessarily a sign of anything more serious than that. But he still hated seeing Soda like this, especially after everything he had been through in the past year. "C'mon, Pepsi, let's get you checked out."
Soda allowed him to help him out of the truck and leaned on him heavily as they made their way into the hospital. Luckily with how early it was the emergency room was practically deserted. They made it to the reception desk and Darry quickly explained to the nurse what had happened. He also had to explain that Soda's leg had already been hurt before the incident. The nurse immediately called for a wheelchair and Soda actually seemed grateful to get off his feet.
"We're going to take him back for an MRI," the nurse explained. "You'll have to wait here. We'll call you back when he is done."
Darry nodded, but Soda looked up at him with a hint of fear in his eyes. "You won't leave me here…?" Soda said slowly, letting his question hang.
"No, I'm not gonna leave," Darry assured him, though he didn't quite understand Soda's fear. "I'll wait right here until you're done."
Soda looked at him carefully and then slowly nodded. The nurse took this as consent as she wheeled him away and they both disappeared through a couple of double doors. Darry sighed, feeling stressed as he ran a hand through his hair. Then he turned back to the reception desk, back to business.
"You got a phone I could use?" he asked. He called work first, letting them know that he wouldn't be in today. His boss was thankfully very understanding as usual. Then he had to make the phone call he dreaded most. As he dialed the number of the DX he took comfort in the knowledge that he knew Steve wouldn't be the one to pick up since he would be out in the garage. He could imagine that Steve was going to be very angry with him when he found out about this.
"DX, this is Two-Bit," Two-Bit answered.
"Hey, Two-Bit, it's Darry," Darry said.
"Hey, what's up?" Two-Bit said cheerfully.
Darry sighed. "Soda passed out after you guys left," he said bluntly.
"What, is he okay?" Two-Bit said quickly, his voice suddenly serious.
"Yeah, I think so," Darry said. "I think he just stood up too quickly and the dizziness got to him. He was only out for a few minutes but I brought him to the hospital just in case. They took him back to do an MRI."
"You want us to come over?" Two-Bit asked.
"No, not right now," Darry said. "It's not so serious you guys gotta ditch work. But if you could pick up Pony after school and bring him over here, I'm sure he'd appreciate it." He knew he promised to get Pony from school in the event that he had to take Soda to the hospital, but he really didn't want to pull him out of school for something that was hopefully very minor. He knew Pony would be angry with him, but he couldn't bring himself to worry about that right now.
"Sure, no problem," Two-Bit said.
"Oh, also could you swing by the house and grab Soda's cane?" Darry asked. "I forgot to grab it before we left. I think it's in the living room. If not check outside by the porch where he fell."
"Yeah, Steve brought it in after he fell, it's probably still in the living room," Two-Bit said. "You call if you need anything else."
"I will, thanks Two-Bit," Darry said. He hung up and thanked the nurse for letting him use the phone. He headed back to the waiting area and took a seat. He knew that getting an MRI could take a little time.
Maybe twenty minutes later a nurse in her mid-thirties came out into the waiting room, looking at its few occupants curiously. "Family of Sodapop Curtis?" she asked.
Darry stood up and approached her. "I'm Soda's guardian," he said. "Darrel Curtis."
"Ah, good, Mr. Curtis," she said. He had been expecting her to tell him that they finished with the tests and he could go sit with Soda now. What she actually said surprised him. "We are having a little bit of a problem with Sodapop's MRI. Would you like to come with me?"
"Uh, sure," Darry said, taken off guard. He knew that an MRI was a very simple procedure, no worse than having an x-ray. He couldn't imagine what could have gone wrong. But he followed the nurse all the same. "What kind of problem?" he asked as they moved through the halls of the hospital. He suddenly felt a churning in his stomach. He remembered that the MRI involved very powerful magnets and no metal could be worn while the machine was on. It wasn't possible that Soda still had shrapnel in his knee, was it? Surely the army doctors had removed it all.
"It's not terribly major," the nurse quickly assured him. "But it seems like when the machine started up he had a fairly severe attack of anxiety and we had to stop the procedure. He calmed down a bit when we pulled him out of the machine, but he is refusing to go back in and was asking for you."
Darry frowned. He couldn't imagine what could have triggered an anxiety attack. Soda had never been claustrophobic and he couldn't imagine any situation in Vietnam that would have triggered a fear of closed spaces. He followed the nurse into a room with two people in lab coats sitting at a table with some complicated looking machines. There was a window in front of them that looked into another room with a very large, tube-like machine. The MRI machine, he supposed. He had never actually seen one before, it was pretty new technology. He saw Soda sitting up on a table outside of the machine, his legs dangling down toward the floor. He had changed into a hospital gown and even from this distance Darry could see that he was trembling. He followed the nurse through the door into the room with the MRI machine and he immediately hurried to Soda's side.
"You okay, Soda?" he asked, concern in his voice.
Soda shook his head, genuine fear in his eyes. "I… I can't, Darry," he stammered, a hint of pleading in his voice. "I just… I just can't go back in there."
"Why, what's wrong?" Darry asked as he carefully took a seat next to his brother.
Soda looked down at his hands, looking ashamed and embarrassed. "It's loud in there," he said quietly, shuddering at the memory. "It makes these loud… banging noises."
It suddenly dawned on Darry what was wrong. Loud noises combined with not being able to move must have been awful for him after being on the battlefield for so long. Darry put a comforting arm over Soda's shoulders and squeezed him into him.
"I'm sorry, little buddy," he said. "If I had known it would be like that I wouldn't have let you go alone." He glanced at the nurse who was standing a few feet away to give them some privacy. "Could I stay in here with him while you do the MRI?" he asked her, not wanting to make any promises he couldn't keep.
"Yes, that would be fine," the nurse said.
Darry turned toward Soda, keeping his arm around him. "Can you try again, Soda?" he asked gently. "I'll stay with you and talk to you the whole time." Soda looked at him wearily. "Please Soda? It'll make me feel better if they can check you out after that nasty fall."
Soda took in a slow shaky breath. "Okay," he said quietly, but his still looked nervous.
Darry gave him a comforting squeeze before standing up, but made sure to stay close to the table. Soda shifted, lifting his right leg up onto the table and then reaching down and pulling his left leg up as well. He very slowly laid back down, looking around nervously. The nurse approached and carefully attached a cage-like contraption around Soda's head. Darry noticed that Soda's breathing was getting heavier.
He took Soda's hand and squeezed. "It's okay," he said. "It'll be over in a few minutes."
Soda nodded but Darry could see that his jaw was clenched.
"Try and keep as still as possible," the nurse reminded him gently. "We'll let you know before we turn the machine on so you won't be as startled this time." Then she looked at Darry. "Do you have any metal on you?" He started to take his watch off before he remembered the zipper in his jeans. The nurse seemed to realize this as well as she looked him over. "We can get you a pair of sweatpants to change into."
Darry nodded. "I'll be right back, little buddy," he told Soda. Then he turned back to the nurse. "Do not turn that machine on until I get back." The nurse nodded, but he had said it more for Soda's benefit than because he actually thought she would. It only took him a few minutes to get changed into some sweatpants that he nurse provided. When he returned Soda had not moved, but he looked more tense than he had when he had left. "Hey, I'm back," Darry said as he approached the table again.
"Are you ready, Sodapop?" the nurse asked.
Soda simply nodded. The nurse hit a button on the machine and the table started moving, sliding Soda into the long tube that was the MRI machine. A minute later it stopped. The nurse walked back out of the room and Darry stepped as close to the machine as he could.
"We're about to turn the machine on," a voice announced over an intercom.
"Deep breath, Soda," Darry instructed calmly. "It'll be okay, it's just noise, it won't hurt you."
There was a whirring noise as the machine started up. Then out of nowhere there were several loud bangs, like someone was pounding on the inside of the machine. Darry even jumped a little bit. If he hadn't still been able to see Soda he might have thought that it was him trying to get out. It was a lot louder than he had expected it to be and he could imagine that it was even louder inside the machine. No wonder Soda had panicked, especially if he hadn't known it was coming.
"Darry?" came Soda's voice, shaking slightly.
"It's okay, Soda," Darry said. "You're not in any danger, it's just the MRI machine."
Darry continued to provide any comfort that he could from outside of the machine. After several minutes the banging noises were even starting to get on his nerves, so he couldn't imagine how Soda must be feeling. He hated that Soda was going through this right now. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, though in reality it was probably about ten or fifteen minutes, the machine went quiet and a voice over the intercom announced that they were finished. Darry gave a sigh of relief and resisted the urge to reach in and pull Soda out of the machine himself.
The nurse came back out and hit a button on the machine and the table immediately started to retreat out from the tube. As Darry got a good look at Soda it was clear that it had been a horribly stressful experience. All his muscles were tense and he was even sweating a bit from the effort of trying to control his panic and keep perfectly still. His eyes looked around fearfully, begging for release. The nurse didn't waste any time pulling off the cage that surrounded his head and Soda quickly shoved himself up into a sitting position, his body being to tremble once again. Darry immediately wrapped his arms securely around his younger brother and pulled him close.
"I'm proud of you, Soda," Darry said, rubbing his back in an attempt to comfort him. "You did great."
Soda quietly wound his arms around Darry, leaning into him as he hugged him back, his breathing ragged with his barely suppressed panic. After a moment he spoke, his voice small.
"I'm so happy to be home."