Chapter 24
Pony and Johnny didn't know how much time had passed while the two played crazy 8's and war, but it was Johnny who brought it to Ponyboy's attention that maybe he should check on someone in particular. "Hey, Ponyboy, how long are ya gonna leave her in there before checking on her?" Pony looked over and noticed the clock read 7:30. She had been in there for over an hour and not a sound had come from her room.
"You think I should go in?" Pony asked with some skepticism in his voice.
"Don't you? I mean what if she isn't ok?" Pony threw his cards down on the coffee table and started to get up from the couch. He started to walk towards the kitchen when he stopped and retraced his steps back towards Johnny. "What do I say to her? I don't know what to say or do; I usually don't do this type of stuff."
"You can tell her to get ready for bed, brush her teeth and stuff. Isn't that what Sodapop would do if her was here?"
"I guess I can do that, but that's not gonna make her feel better about things."
"You're a smart kid, Ponyboy, something will come to you. I can come with you if you think it'll help?" Johnny asked while picking up the cards and shuffling them.
"Nah, that'll probably make her feel uncomfortable, thanks for offering though. I'll be right back. See what you can find on the tube. There might be some chips in the cupboard if ya hungry and want a snack." Pony headed back towards Sara's room dreading what kind of conditions he might find. When he approached the door he heard some very soft music coming from within. Pony contemplated if he should knock or not. Figuring she would just tell him to go away he decided against the knocking and instead pushed the door open. The room was completely dark. She had pulled her shades already and had turned out all the lights. The only light was the glow from her small radio that was playing the music. It illuminated just enough light that Pony could see that Sara was curled up on top of her bed. To Pony's surprise she had already changed out of her dress and into one of the boy's old t-shirt that had the school's mascot on the front with Property of the PE Department under it. Sara often would use one of the boy's old t-shirt for pajamas, especially in the spring and summer when it was warm at night. Pony called out to Sara to see if she was already sleeping. "Sara, are you still awake?"
"Yes."
"Did you brush your teeth, and use the bathroom yet?"
"No. Is it eight o'clock yet?" She asked.
"No, it's only seven thirty. So you have another half hour. Do you want me to turn on a light or something?" Pony asked reaching for the lamp beside her bed.
"No!" Sara's voice cracked.
"Ok, ok. I was just asking. Since when do you enjoy sitting in the dark?"
"I don't mind the dark so much."
"Could of fooled me. Can I sit down?" Pony asked.
"It's a free country isn't it?"
"Why do you've gotta be such a smartass? I'm trying to be nice here."
"No one asked you to."
"That's what I'm talking about. I came in here because I wanted to see how you were doing. If I didn't care I would of stayed out in the other room talking and playing cards with Johnny."
"I'm fine. So there, you can leave now." Pony was about to get up and leave when he turned and sat back down again, he wasn't gonna let her win this round.
"Listen here Sara, I get it, I do. I get that you're mad, I get that you are hurting, I even get that you might be scared, but you honestly thought that you would get away with hollering, cursing, kicking and throwing your plate with food on it and not have the reaction from Darry that he did? I mean come on." Pony paused and pushed Sara's hair behind her ear so that he could see her face, and when he did his heart gave a quick pain. The tears that he had thought had stopped some time ago had not. They were still freely following from her now blood shot eyes. "Sara, you could have avoided this. You should of stopped when Darry warned you that it was the end of discussion. How many times has he used that line on us before? It's his clear warning that it's over, and there's to be no more about it. Besides if I wasn't going to be able to go, than clearly you weren't going to either. You need to start learning that Darry's different than Momma and Dad. He has less patience then they did, he is quicker to make decisions than they did, and he certainly is quicker at laying down discipline than they did."
"Momma or Dadda wouldn't of never done what Darry did." Sara's voice sounded so tired and weak to Pony. His intentions were not to come in here and try to make her feel worse about the situation, but he wanted her to know that he does care about her even though he doesn't always show it.
"I don't know about that Sara. I think the minute you decided to throw your food and plate, Dad might of just had done the same thing. That wouldn't of been acceptable or tolerated in his eyes either. But we'll never know that. You can't try to live in the past Sara. You need to accept that this is our new life and yeah, a lot of times it sucks, and do I wish things could go back to normal, hell I think we all do, but we're stuck with what was dealt to us. You think I like having to listen to Darry ride my ass all the time? Do you think I enjoy listening to him yell at me, or grounding me, or nagging me about my homework, no way, but I know its way better than living in a boy's home or some foster home. So that's why I tell Mrs. Roberts that everything is fine and that we're all getting along just swell, when in fact we aren't. It sucks, but the alternative could be so much worse. I know you're hurting right now, physically and emotionally, but I can guarantee you that Darry is too. We all read it in his eyes and on his face when he grabbed his keys. I knew that he was just as upset as you were at that moment. But Sara, you honestly brought it on yourself. You can't act like the world only revolves around you. The stunt you pulled with Mrs. Roberts and then again with Darry, what were you thinking? Do you really think that's going to work, throwing temper tantrums?" Pony paused to let his sister get a word in, if she wanted to.
"I don't know what I was thinking, Pony. I think there's something wrong with me." Sara stopped to wipe at some tears that were now following across her nose. Pony didn't respond because he was quit intrigued to hear his sister admit that there was something wrong with herself. For Pony has had this thought many a times about himself, so it was interesting to hear his sister say it about herself. When Sara didn't continue Pony knew that he had to try to get her talking again.
"Sara, go on. I'm listening, you can tell me anything and I won't think any different of you."
"Pony, ever since the day at your track meet and getting lost at the stadium I feel weird all the time. It's like I don't know or trust myself anymore. I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't think, I can't be in crowed places without feeling scared, I can't be by myself because than that makes me feel scared. I can't be around people I don't know because that makes me scared and I don't know why. What do you think is happening to me?" Sara eyes were desperately pleading for an answer from Pony, and Pony was flabbergasted at what his sister had just told him. This had been going on for a week now, but it certainly did explain all of her odd behaviors that she had demonstrated this past week.
"Sara, why didn't you say something to us about this sooner? How many times has Darry or Sodapop ask you what's the matter? We've all noticed that you have been acting strange this week, you should of just came out and told us. Is this why you have been having nightmares?"
"Yes. Everytime I go to sleep all these weird dreams happen where I'm lost and all I see are strangers and no one helps me and I can't find you guys and it scares me so. It just replays over and over again every time I go to sleep, so I don't want to sleep anymore."
"You need sleep, Sara. Everyone needs sleep. It's what makes our bodies function, and when your body doesn't get any or enough of it, it starts doing things to you, like making you not hungry or cranky or paranoid about things, like feeling unsafe." Pony reached over and started to rub Sara's arm to help reassure her that she was ok. "It's probably also the reason why you flipped out like you did tonight, and why you did with Mrs. Roberts this afternoon. I've always known that you have a temper, but I have never seen you break something on purpose like you did with that plate. Sara, you need to tell Darry. You can't continue like this. It's not healthy, and if you can't fix it soon, it could get worse. Darry might be frustrated at first, but he'll eventually understand. I can't believe you held this in all week. You're horrible at keeping secrets. And Sara this was a big secret to be keeping from everyone."
"I didn't hold it in. I told someone and they told me that I had until tonight to tell one of my brothers or he was going to tell them for me. He told me that it would be best if they heard it from me instead of him. But now I've kept my part of the deal, I just told you. You're my brother, so that counts right?" Pony let out a huge sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Me? Thanks, Sara. Now I get to deliver the news? Not so sure if I should feel honored or not. I wasn't really looking forward to having a heart to heart talk with our big brother tonight." Pony was trying to smile at his sister in hopes that she would feel a little better about things.
"Well, maybe Darry won't come home tonight, and then you can wait to tell him."
"Or maybe you could tell him when he gets home, because Sara no matter how mad he is now, he'll come home. Don't know what time that might be, but he'll come back."
"Maybe you could tell Soda, and Soda could relay the message? You know Soda; he's pretty good about that kind of stuff." Pony thought about it for a minute and thought just maybe his little sister was right.
"You know what; you seem to be thinking just fine now."Ponyboy reached over and ruffled Sara's head to let her know that he was impressed with her clever idea. "I think you have a great idea. I'll tell Soda when he gets home and he can tell Darry for us. The only thing is we both better hope that Soda comes home before Darry, or our little plan will backfire on us. I won't be able to keep this from Darry if it's just the two of us in the house together tonight."
"Pretend to be asleep. I do that all the time and it works pretty good for me." Pony smiled down at his sister, he definitely underestimated her at times.
"Alright, it's a deal. Just want to warn you though that by tomorrow morning Darry is gonna know. So be ready. Now get up and go get those teeth brushed and use the bathroom, then it's off to bed."
"Ok. Thanks for listening to me, Pony." Sara said wincing a bit as she pushed herself up off the bed. Even though it had been a couple of hours since the incident her butt was still burning with pain. Darry surely made an impact with her bottom.
"Thanks for telling me. I just wished you had said something earlier. It might of never had come down to this this." Pony followed Sara to the bathroom and watched as she brushed her teeth, and when she was done he moved away so that she could use the toilet in private. When she was finished he had filled a glass half full of water and handed to her. "Don't drink it all at once."
"I won't. Good night, Pony."
"Good night, Sara. Sweet dreams."
"I'll try." When Sara approached Pony to take the glass from him she slipped and arm around his waist and stole a hug before going to bed. Pony returned the hug making sure not to touch any area that might still be sore and then softly pushed her off towards her room.
"Go on, now." Sara shuffled on down the hall and was just about to enter her room when Pony called out her name. "Sara?"
"Yeah, Pony?"
"Who was that someone that you told your secret to?"
"Steve." And with that said Sara slipped back into her room and closed the door behind her.
"Oh, man, Darry, you were right." Pony said out loud.
"Right about what?" Pony nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the voice. "Pony? What was Darry right about?"
"Jesus Johnny you scared me. I thought you were out in the living room still."
"I just came back in from having a smoke and thought I would check on you and Sara. What are you muttering about? What was Darry right about?" Johnny asked again walking behind Pony towards the living room.
"Steve. Darry was right about Steve."
"I'm not following." Johnny said flopping down next to Pony on the couch.
"At dinner tonight Steve was asking all these odd questions about Sara. We all found it kind of weird, but Darry called Steve out on it, and Steve tried to act like he didn't know what Darry was talking about, when in fact he knew the whole time. Darry told him that they would talk about it later, but then the whole thing with Sara happened and Darry never got to it. And when I was just in there talking with Sara she told me why she has been acting so weird this week. Come to find out she had told Steve and Steve kind of blackmailed her and told her that she had until tonight to tell one of us what was going on, before he did. So Darry was right. He knew that Steve knew something. Man, I hate to be Steve when Darry gets wind of this."
"Since when has Sara and Steve become so close? I'm a little shocked to hear that out of everyone Sara would confide in Steve. Why not Sodapop? I could even see her even telling Dally, but never Steve." Johnny asked Pony with a puzzled look on his face.
"I don't know, I didn't ask her that. But I need your help. I don't want to have to be the one to tell Darry."
"You need to, Man. Don't you think he needs to know?"
"Yes, but I don't want to be the one to tell him, I think it should be Soda. So this is where I need your help." For the second time Johnny jumped in cutting Pony off.
"Hey, I don't know if I wanta be part of this plan. Pony, we never fair well with Darry when we're trying to cover up something. I think you should just tell him when he gets home."
"If, and when he comes home. And since when has Johnny Cade turned chicken?"
"You know I'm not chicken. It's just, well after everything that has happened already; don't you think it's just best to be upfront with what you know?" The two boys just sat there for a minute or so in silence before Pony answered the question.
"Fine, then don't help me. I'll remember that next time you're concocting a plan." Pony started pouting, trying to figure out a new plan. Johnny watched for a little while before bursting out into laughter, which only irritated Pony more.
"What are you laughing at?" Pony snapped.
"You! Have you ever seen yourself when you're pouting like Sara? It's really funny. You look just like her." Johnny couldn't help but grab at his stomach for he was laughing so hard at Pony.
"Well, I wouldn't be pouting if my best friend would help me figure this out!" Pony said throwing a pillow in Johnny's direction. Johnny caught the pillow and set it down behind him and finally gave into Ponyboy.
"Fine, what's the plan? But I just want to make this clear, the minute it doesn't work, I'm high tailing it outta here. The last time you and I got caught hiding something from Darry I didn't really enjoy receiving the wrath of Darry."
"Thanks, Johnny. Ok, so this is what I have so far. If Darry comes home before Soda then I'm gonna pretend that I'm sleeping. I need you to tell Darry that I've been out for a while. If Soda comes home before Darry, then I just need you to be a look out person for Darry, just while I can tell Soda about Steve and Sara. If Steve is with Soda, I need you to make up some story to help distract Steve so I can tell Soda without Steve being around to try to change the subject or defend himself. Something tells me that Soda isn't gonna be too happy with Steve once he finds out. So that's what I got." Pony said with a smile on his face.
"Ahhh, that's it huh?" Johnny asked looking a little uncertain of this whole plan.
"Yup, pretty easy, you think you can handle it?"
"I just hope that Darry gets home before Soda. I can handle that part of the story." Johnny smirked at Pony and the two returned their attention back to the television screen where The Virginian was now playing.
The boys had only been watching the show for about twenty minutes before they heard Darry's truck pulling into the driveway.
"Shit." Was the first words out of Pony's mouth, but Johnny had a bit more positive reaction to the sound.
"Great!" Johnny said sitting there smiling. "Quick, lay down. Pretend to be sleeping. Quick Pony!" Pony kicked his shoes off and curled up on the couch. "Here, take this!" Johnny said tossing Pony back the pillow. Pony quickly took it and shoved it under his head, and closed his eyes.
As Darry drove the truck into the driveway he noticed the lights shining through the front window and saw that Johnny was sitting on the couch looking like he was watching the television. He wasn't certain of what or who he would be welcomed home by but was hoping that it wasn't as full of a house as it was when he left. He turned the ignition off and slowly crawled down from the cab. He gently shut the door and shuffled up to the stairs to the front door. He hadn't really thought about what he was going to say to Sara if she was still up, but he knew that he was ready to face the music. He pulled open the screen door and pushed himself through. As he entered the living room his eyes immediately went to the couch. Once he noticed that Johnny and Pony were the only ones in the living room and there was total silence in the rest of the house, Darry caught the screen door so that it wouldn't slam. "Hey Guys." Darry said in a soft, low voice.
"Hey. Darry." Johnny answered back looking up from the television. Darry moved to the arm chair and sat down to remove his boots. As he sat down he noticed that Pony hadn't moved, or spoken. As Darry leaned forward he noticed that Ponyboy's eyes were closed. He looked from Pony back over to Johnny.
"He's asleep?" Darry was a little surprised to see Pony sleeping at this hour.
"Yeah, pretty much conked out right after The Virginian started." Johnny said looking back towards the television.
"Huh, is he feeling ok?" Darry asked with some real concern in his voice. Johnny had to take a deep breath for this might be harder than he had first thought it would be.
"I think so. Just tired I guess." Johnny said real quickly. Darry got up from his chair and walked over and placed his hand on Pony's forehead.
"Huh." He stood in front of Pony for a second longer. He reached for the afghan that was on the back of the couch and tossed it over Pony. He started to turn towards the kitchen when he stopped and asked Johnny some more questions. "No one else around?"
"Well, Sara is. The others went to the races." Johnny answered but refused to make eye contact with Darry, afraid that he might ruin the plan.
"Thanks Johnny." Darry stood there watching Pony for a minute before adding, "I mean thanks for staying here with Pony and Sara. I appreciate it."
"No problem." Johnny just kept praying that Darry would just leave the room so that he could try to communicate with Pony. Darry took one more look at the two boys before walking into the kitchen. Once in the kitchen, Pony opened his eyes and moved the afghan off of him a bit. "Don't, he's coming back." Johnny whispered shooing Pony's hand away. Pony smirked at Johnny and returned watching the rest of The Virginian. The boys sat in silence listening for Darry's to return.
Darry had ventured down the hall to Sara's room. When he got there he could hear music coming from within. The door was closed and he place his ear up to it to see if he could hear her singing, or talking, or even crying, but nothing except for the soft music was heard. Darry wanted to enter but instead retraced his steps back out towards the living room. Pony heard his heavy footsteps and closed his eyes again. "Johnny, did Pony put Sara to bed?"
"Yeah, like 40 minutes ago."
"How was she?" Darry really wished that he was asking these questions to Pony but he hated to wake him up and Darry really wanted to know the answers to them.
"I don't really know, Darry. She never came out of her room. Haven't really laid eyes on her since the last time you did." Darry let out a big sigh, he was hoping for a different answer. When Johnny heard Darry sigh he started to feel bad. "Sorry, Darry."
"Not your fault, Kiddo." Darry turned back around and headed towards his room. Once he was there he sat down on the end of his bed and threw his hands up to his face. He never though that this day was going to end this way. It had actually started off pretty good. He sat there for a while before deciding that he would take a shower and wait for Sodapop to get home. He grabbed some clean clothes and headed for the shower. While in the shower he turned the water up nice and hot to help relax him some. He stood in there for some time just trying to sort everything out. As the water started getting cooler he knew it was time to get out. He dried himself off and threw on some sweatpants and a Will Rogers football t-shirt and walked back to the washing machine and threw his dirty clothes on top of the washer, like they always did. His intentions were to go back out to the living room but he couldn't resist stopping again at Sara's door. This time he didn't hesitate and he carefully opened it. The music was coming from her radio that had been left on to help lull her to sleep. He was glad to see that it had worked. He moved closer to her bed and scooted down beside it. He quietly watched Sara sleeping. She looked pathetic. Her face was still stained from tears, her hair was going in every direction, and she had on one of Sodapop's old gym shirts that had holes all in it. She truly looked like a little bum. Darry tried to move some of her hair away from her face but it was stuck there from where the wet tears had dried it to her cheek. This gesture by Darry made Sara move about some, but she just rolled from her side to her stomach and now Darry couldn't really see her face for she had turned her head towards the wall. Darry knew that not much was going to get accomplished now that she was asleep so he slowly got back up and turned her music off and retrieved back to the living room. He sat down in the chair and by now The Virginian was over and The Perry Mason show was on. Pony was still asleep with Johnny by his side. "Did the boys happen to say when they might be back?" Darry asked Johnny while reaching for some mail that hadn't been open yet.
"No. Races probably won't get over until ten or so. So probably another couple of hours I would say."
"Yeah, you're probably right. Soda knows he needs to be home by midnight. Are you staying the night? Because if you are I can wake Pony up and have him go to bed so you can have the couch." Darry offered. Anxiety started sinking into Johnny, for him and Pony didn't talk about the what if's. Johnny kind of cleared his throats and hope that Pony would give him a sign of how to answer Darry.
"Umm." Johnny started to say when he felt a nudge in his leg from Pony's foot. Johnny looked down and Pony had opened his eyes and was giving a very slow shake of his head. "Nah, that's ok. I'll wait to see if one of the boys come home with Soda and I'll leave with them."
Darry didn't mind Johnny staying, and out of all the gang he was the quietest to have around, and on a night like this if someone was going to be around at least it was Johnny. Darry just gave Johnny a nod and returned back looking at the mail.
Johnny, Darry and Pony stayed silent in the same room for about an hour before they all heard a car pull up outside of the Curtis' house. They heard a door shut and some mumbled voices, but it wasn't until seconds later they heard the footsteps on the stairs and the screen door open.
"Don't slam the door." Darry warned in a low tone, nodding his head towards the sleeping boy on the couch. Sodapop caught the door as it was closing behind him.
"How long have you been home?" Soda asked with some attitude in his voice.
"An hour and half or so. You're kind of early." Darry remarked.
"Yeah, Sandy wasn't feeling well and wanted to go home. Plus I wasn't having much fun anyways. I guess I was worried about Sara, and I felt kind of bad leaving her and Pony here alone."
"They weren't alone, Johnny was here with them." Darry corrected Sodapop.
"That's not what I meant and you know it." Soda barked back a little louder than he intended. Pony had been listening to this and knew that this would be a good time to pretend to wake up. Plus it was taking a lot of acting skills to stay still and quiet that long. He slowly lifted his head as still playing the part.
"Soda?" Pony made his voice sound sleepy. Soda immediately turned towards the couch and looked at him with a sympathy.
"Sorry, Pon. Why don't you go on to bed? I need to talk to Darry about something." Panic started setting in with Pony, for this was not part of the plan. The plan was for Pony to tell Sodapop alone and then Soda could talk with Darry after, not the other way around. Pony instantly shot up from the couch and was frantically trying to think of something to stop Sodapop.
"Soda, not tonight, can't it wait until the morning?" Pony hoped that Sodapop would change his mind.
"Oh, Pon. It's ok. We're not gonna fight. I just need to talk to Darry about some stuff that's all."
"About Sara?" Pony asked figuring the odds where pretty good that's what Soda might be talking to him about.
"Kinda. Now go on to bed. You look tired and a little pale. I hope you're not coming down with something. Are ya feeling ok?" Soda moved over to feel Pony's forehead, but Pony quickly swiped it away.
"Quit that! I'm not coming down with anything. Please Soda, just wait until tomorrow." Pony begged.
"No, Pony. I need to tell Darry tonight, it's important. Dar, I know something about Sara, and why she's been acting so odd, and you're probably not going to like it one bit."
"What are you talking about Soda?" Darry asked with a puzzle look on his face.
"You were right about Steve knowing something about Sara, and telling."
"You know too?" Pony asked in surprise.
"What do you mean know too? What are you two keeping from me?" Darry asked with confusion.
Sodapop grabbed Pony's arm and turned him so that he was looking straight into his eyes, "What do you know about this?"
"I just found out too. Sara told me tonight, what do you know about it?" Pony asked back.
"Steve told me about an hour ago. That's another reason why I came home early." Darry watched his two younger brothers going back and forth about who knows what and when they found out. All he wanted to do at the moment was knock their heads together.
"Stop it!" Darry yelled at the two. "Would someone just friggin' fill me in on what the hell you two are going back and forth about? I don't really give two shits about when or who, just friggin' tell me what's going on!" Pony looked at Soda and gesture for him to go right ahead.
"He's your best friend. You can have the honors." Pony gave his brother a shitty ass grin.
"Thanks a lot, Pon." Soda said giving his little brother a friendly shove.
"Hey, you were the one that was all gun-ho to tell him anyways." Pony returned back to his original spot on the couch to listen to Soda's version of what he knew of Sara's distress. Soda took his shoes off and tossed them across the room before he sat on the arm of the couch beside Pony and got ready to fill Darry in on everything he knew.
"So you know how earlier you suspected that Steve knew something about Sara?" Soda decided it best to start off slow and gentle in explaining things.
"That son of a bitch! I'm gonna bash his head in. I knew he was acting to concern about Sara. What the hell is it Soda? What did he know and wasn't telling us?"
"There's something wrong with Sara, Dar. I think getting lost at Pony's meet really did more harm than we realized."
"Just get to the point, Soda!"
"Long story short then, Sara told Steve that she isn't sleeping because she can't. Every time she closes her eyes all she sees are stranger's faces and she's yelling for us, but we aren't there. She can't shake it, Dar. So she refusing to sleep, and she feels scared all the time when we aren't around. That's why she has been our shadow this past week, that's why her behavior has been so off. She told Steve this the day he went and picked her up from school, when she was sick. Steve threated her that if she didn't tell one of us by tonight, he was gonna. So Steve figured since you were gone, and I was too she wasn't gonna tell anyone. But I guess we were all wrong, because she did tell someone." Soda stopped in his explanation and looked towards Ponyboy.
"It's not my fault! I can't help that I was the only one here. And we just got talking about what happened with her and Darry and one thing lead to another and she just told me. I was gonna tell you Soda when you got home, but here we are."
"I'm gonna literally kill that kid. I thought after our talk the other night that he understood about keeping things from me that affected my family." Darry slapped his hand to his head and let out a long, hard moan. "I knew there was something going on with her; I just couldn't put a finger on it. Every time we would ask her, she just said she was fine. That little shit, she's gonna make me go completely gray before I'm twenty five. Why didn't she just tell us that she was scared? I mean what did she think we would get mad or something? We're family; we're here to help each other." Darry was so frustrated with himself, with Sara, and with the situation that he started pacing around the living room and then into the kitchen.
"Dar, it's not your fault, hell it's no one's." Soda said following him into the kitchen.
Darry spun on his heels and yelled louder than he intended to. "It's Steve's fault, that's who fault this is. He should of spoken up the minute Sara told him, what was that Tuesday? No, Wednesday wasn't it? Damn it, I can't even remember what day it was that she came home sick. What's happening to me?" Darry smashed his fist onto the refrigerator making a loud thud, and making his younger brothers and Johnny jump out of their skin.
"Darry, ya gonna wake up Sara. We should be thankful that she's sleeping." Pony tried to remind his older brother. Darry turned and faced Pony and just looked at him with a cold, hard stare, he then turned and glanced down the empty hall that leads to his sister's room and he started to follow it to her door. He reopened it and stood watching her sleep.
Soda came up beside Darry and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "She's gonna be alright, Dar. She'll get through this." Darry didn't have anything to say to that, he just stood there with sad eyes watching his baby sister.
Darry closed the door and turned to his brothers, "I'm going to bed; we'll finish this conversation tomorrow." He walked into his room and let his tired body flop down on his bed. He looked up to the ceiling and whispered, "Mom and Dad if you're up there, would you please send me some guidance and fast, because I just don't know what to do anymore. I can't do this, I can't raise Sara, I thought I could, but I can't. It's just to friggin' hard. " And before Darry knew it a small stream of tears were leaking from his ice blue eyes.