Chapter 26

Sara didn't know how long she had been pedaling but she sure was getting tired. She had to stop and rest, and to give her bottom some relief from riding on that narrow, skinny seat of the bike. She picked a shady spot on the side of the road to lean against a big weeping willow. She swiped at the beads of sweat that had formed on her brow. The sun was started to get hotter, which told her that it was probably one or one thirty. She wasn't sure how much further she had to go, but she did know that she couldn't turn back now. She had already made it this far. She was relieved that she hadn't run into anyone that she knows, or knew her. She reached for her thermos and took a nice long drink. She placed the cover back on as tightly as she could and tucked it back into her lunch box. She buckled her book bag back up and placed it over her shoulder and across her chest again before setting out for the rest of her journey. As she got herself back onto the bike, she checked for traffic and continued down the road. She knew once she had passed Wilson's field she would be getting closer to her destination. She had no clue about how much further she needed to go, for she was never good at estimating distances and such. Sara was so determine and focus that she just kept pedaling her little feet. She was glad that she had grabbed Soda's ball cap to help keep the sun from shining directly into her eyes, and to help disguise her just in case someone did pass her by on the road.

Back at the Curtis house Pony had gotten out of the shower and was drying off when he was hoping that Sara had at least temped some of the sandwich and chips. He had no intention of ratting her out to Darry, but was hoping that the threat would be enough to scare her into eating. Pony threw on his clean clothes and wiped the steam from the mirror and was hunting for a trace of a beard. To no luck at finding any he gathered up his dirty towel and clothes and headed towards the washing machine where he threw in a small load of darks. As Pony was doing this he thought that the house was awful quiet. As he headed back to the kitchen to see how much progress Sara had made of her lunch he took note of her room. It was still a mess. He would need to remind her to pick it up. Not only were her pile of books scattered all over the floor, but now she had a pile of god knows what on her rug. When Ponyboy rounded the corner from the hall to the kitchen he was a little taken back that Sara was not at the table, nor was her lunch. "That little shit", Pony thought. If she has taken it to the living room to eat he might just turn that threat into a promise. "Sara?" he yelled moving towards the living room. "Sara?" He called out again coming to a halt when he saw that the living room was empty as well. The next place to look was outside. Sometimes she would take her lunch or snacks out there to eat them on the worn out bench that's on the porch. "Sara?" he called again opening the screen door to see if she was out there. When he opened it, he only found an empty bench. Pony didn't want to start to over react here, but this really wasn't like Sara to hide on him. But then again, look at what she did last night, and that isn't really like her either, so nothing should be surprising him at this point. As Pony entered the house he walked back into the kitchen and noticed that her dishes were in the sink. "Huh" he thought. As he stood there trying to think of where she might have gone he hollered out, "Sara, we don't have time to play hide and seek, so you best make yourself present." Pony waited a second in silence waiting for a noise. If there was one thing, Sara was never good at playing hide and seek. She couldn't stay quiet long enough without being found. Ponyboy stood silent again hoping she would give herself away, but he still couldn't hear her. Pony started moving from room to room, continuing to call out her name. "Sara, Sara, I'm not playing games. You best come out here now!" Pony checked the last room in the house, his parent's room, and when he opened the door he felt a rush of air come at him, but the room looked untouched, and no Sara. "Sara, if you're not out here by the time I count to 10, then I'm calling Sodapop at work, and we both know how that'll end up!" Pony closed his parent's door and started counting, "One, two, three." While Ponyboy was counting he decided to check out back. Just maybe she decided to take down the laundry by herself. "Four, five, six" He opened the back door and found nothing but floating laundry and an empty yard. "Seven, Eight." Pony walked around to see if she had gone back to lying down in the grass again on the side of the house. "Nine." But as he rounded the corner he found nothing but a nicely trimmed yard. He finished walking around the house just in case she was on the swing or something, and when he saw an empty swing his heart started beating faster and his breathing started to become more rapid like he had just ran a mile. "Ten!" He yelled. And still nothing. He walked to the edge of the driveway to make sure that she hadn't gone back to drawing in the dirt, but the driveway was absolutely empty. Pony knew he needed to call Soda now. And he was going to makesure she let her know it too. He ran back towards the porch taking the front stairs two at a time into the house. "Last chance Sara! I'm picking up the phone right now; I'm dialing the number to the DX. "I'm warning you this is your last chance, you best come out here right now." Pony yelled through the house in hopes that Sara would show. As he dialed the last number to the DX, Sara had still not shown her face. "Fine! Just remember you had your chance!" Pony listened to the phone ring once, twice, three times. On the fourth ring a familiar voice answered.

"Hello, The DX, Steve speaking."

"Hey, Steve, it's Ponyboy. I need to speak with Soda. It's an emergency!" Ponyboy panted out.

Steve could hear the urgency in Ponyboy's voice, and even though he wanted to give Pony a hard time for calling he decided against it. "Hold on, Pony. Hey Sodapop? It's your baby brother on the line; he says it's an emergency!" Pony could hear Soda muttering in the background and then came along some rattling, but within seconds, Pony was relieved to hear Sodapop's voice.

"Ponyboy, what's the emergency? Is someone hurt?"

"I don't think so, Soda." Pony said trying to calm his voice down.

"Then what is it?" Soda said interrupting Pony.

"It's Sara, Soda."

"What about her, is she misbehaving again?" Soda's voice had now changed from concern to frustration.

"No, well, yes, but Soda I can't find her."

"What do you mean you can't find her?" Soda's voice now had switched back over from frustration to concern.

"I can't find her. She's not coming when I call for her. I've checked everywhere Soda; I can't find her anywhere here at home. She's nowhere to be found. Not in the house, not outside. I've given threats and everything and she hasn't shown. What should I do, Soda?" It was quiet for an instant on Soda's end before Pony heard him say anything.

"I don't get it Pon? How can you not find her? Weren't you watching her?"

"Yes, I was watching her Soda! But I jumped into the shower for like 5-10 minutes and when I came out she wasn't here. Soda, I'm scared, this isn't like her. She wouldn't just take off without letting us know. I mean I know she's been acting strange lately, but not like this, she wouldn't."

"Don't be scared, Pon. She's around there somewhere, she's just playing games. Have you checked outside?"

"Yes. She's not in the yard." Soda could start to hear the pitch change in Pony's voice, and knew he was indeed getting scared.

"Try to stay calm Pony. I want you to run to the park, see if she's on the playground, if not check the lot. I'll stay by the phone and wait. Call the minute you get back. I'm sending Two-Bit and Dally to meet you there. I bet she's just wandering around over there because she was bored or something."

"But what about Darry? He said not to leave the house." Pony surely didn't want to receive heck from Darry for leaving the yard, when he was perfectly clear about them staying home.

"Ponyboy, don't worry about Darry. Just go see if she's there. Hurry!" Soda hung up the phone and turned to Two-Bit and Dally who were sitting on some garage stools harassing Steve. "Two-Bit, I need you to go meet Ponyboy at the park!"

"At the park? I thought he told us that they couldn't leave the house? What's he doing at the park?"

"Looking for Sara. She seems to have disappeared. I'm sure she's probably there. She's definitely putting her rebellion shoes on here lately. That kid never listens! I swear maybe she did deserve to receive that lickin' Darry gave her last night." Soda said picking up the carbonator that he was working on and heading back towards the car it belong to.

"Sure, you want me to bring them back here when I find them?" Two-Bit asked jumping down from the stool.

"Yeah, if you don't mind." Soda said thinking that he had a few choice words to use with his little sister right about now.

"Nope, not at all." Two-Bit started heading for his car when he yelled back towards Dal, "Hey, Dal you coming?"

"Nah, I'll stay here and keep an eye out for anymore cute redheads that might be driving corvair." Two-Bit just laughed and waved his hand at the boys in the garage. The park was only a few blocks around the corner so he arrived right at the same time as Pony did. Pony ran over to the empty playground in search of Sara.

"Sara?" He yelled out to the empty space. Nothing. He ran around a little looking behind trees and such and there was still no sign of her here.

"Sara?" Two-Bit joined in. After the boys had been searching and yelling for what seemed like forever there was still no sign of her. Two-Bit came up beside Pony. "She wouldn't just take off like this, are you sure she's not at home?"

"No, Two, she wasn't there."

"Jump in, we'll go get Sodapop." Two-Bit tugged on Pony's arm and led him over to his car. They both jumped in and before Pony had his door closed Two-Bit was pealing out to get back to the DX. Sodapop's heart dropped to the ground when he saw Two-Bit fly into the dirt driveway with just Ponyboy in tow. He threw down his rag and jogged out to meet Ponyboy.

"She wasn't there?" He questioned them both.

Pony just shook his head. "I don't know Soda. It's just like she disappeared in thin air."

Soda could feel a ton of emotions swelling inside of him, with anger being the leading emotion he ended up lashing out towards Ponyboy. "No one just disappears into thin air, Pony!" Pony flinched a bit with the tone that Soda had just thrown at him. "No one!" Soda kicked at a rock that was in the driveway and let out a heavy breath. "We're friggin' swamp today; I don't have time for this shit." Soda started pacing back and forth trying to clear his head. The first thought was to go tell Darry, but than that would be two of them that would be missing out on work, but Darry would want to know. Then he was trying to think where the heck would she of taken off to? Where does she like to go? Soda was having a hard time trying to figure out what to do next, but as he was trying to work it all out, Dally and Steve had now approached from the garage.

"Soda?" Steve asked coming up beside of him.

"Where can she be man? What has gotten into her to do something like this?" Soda's shoulders started shaking as he was trying to compress all the emotions that were percolating to the surface. "It doesn't make any sense. You say that she scared of being alone because of getting lost at Pony's meet, but now she has taken off alone without any of us knowing. It doesn't make sense."

"I don't know Soda, but we'll find her. Where does she like to go? What about friends?

"I don't know. The park, but she wasn't there. I don't know maybe she went to visit with our old neighbor, Mrs. Anderson." Then it was like a light bulb went off, and he ran back over towards Pony and Two-Bit. "Pony, Mrs. Anderson! Did you check with Mrs. Anderson? You know how she likes to go over there and chat while Mrs. Anderson work's in her flower beds." Pony's eye lite up with the suggestion from Soda, he totally didn't think about their neighbors.

"No, I didn't check there. Two, can you drive me over?"

"If you find her, bring her back here! I'm gonna have a very unpleasant chat with her, and she thinks Darry laid into her, she's got another thing coming when I get my hands on her."

"Will do." Two-Bit and Pony were off again, this time to Mrs. Anderson's. It took only a couple minutes for Two-Bit to drive up in front of her house. "Two-Bit run over to our house and see if she's there. I'll check with Mrs. Anderson." Pony then jumped out of the car and ran up to the door. He looked around to see if he could hear or see Sara or Mrs. Anderson but the neighborhood was pleasantly quiet for a Saturday morning. When Pony couldn't see them outside he rang the doorbell. He tapped his foot impatiently waiting for Mrs. Anderson to open the door. He could hear someone shuffling their old tired bones towards him and the door. The door slowly opened and Mrs. Anderson was smiles when she greeted Ponyboy.

"Oh, hello there, Ponyboy. What brings you to my doorstep on this fine morning?"

"Hello, Mrs. Anderson, I was wondering if Sara might be here with you." Mrs. Anderson's cheery smile soon disappeared with the understanding of what Ponyboy was asking her.

"No Dear, she's not. Is she missing?" Just as Mrs. Anderson was delivering the bad news, Two-Bit also was delivering bad news. Pony looked eagerly at Two-Bit, but Two-Bit just shook his head from side to side. "Why hello there Keith."

"Hi, Mrs. Anderson. So you haven't seen Sara at all today?" Two-Bit asked clarifying the question again for the ageing lady.

"I'm sorry boys I haven't. Actually I haven't seen her all week, come to think of it. I hope that she's alright Dear."

"She won't be when Darry and Soda get ahold of her." Two-Bit muttered under his breath, but with Mrs. Anderson's old age she couldn't hear him, and with the jab from Pony's elbow into his stomach it stopped him from anymore remarks.

"Mrs. Anderson, if you see her can you please tell her she needs to come home."

"Of course, Dear. I'll keep an eye out for her. I hope that she shows up soon. Darry must be beside himself."

"He would be if he knew." Two-Bit muttered again.

"Thank you Mrs. Anderson. Sorry to bother you." Pony waved and started pushing Two-Bit down the steps.

"No bother at all. Good luck boys." Mrs. Anderson watched as the boys slumped back to Keith's car.

"What now?" Two-Bit asked Pony as they approached the car.

Ponyboy shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe we should go tell Darry. He'll know what to do."

"Well, I'm not about to get my head bashed in by Superman. So let's go get Sodapop and he can break the bad news to him."

"Yeah, sounds like a good plan." Ponyboy said while sliding into the passenger seat.

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Sara had now realized that maybe running away wasn't such a grand idea after all, for she was tired, and the hot spring sun was more than she expected. She was warm and sweaty, plus the jeans and long sleeve shirt that she had thrown on this morning was fine then, but now she wished that she had shorts and a short sleeve shirt on to help cool her body. She took Soda's ball cap off and swiped again at the sweat that had built up underneath the bill of the cap. She reached in and took another sip from her thermos. She realized that there wasn't very much left. She would have to save some for when she had reached her destination. She knew that she was almost there because she had now come upon Wilson's field. As she was stopped for a minute, she was remembering back a few weeks ago, when she had made Darry stop here so that she could gather up some wild flowers to place on her parent's grave. Sara let a slight smile come to her face remembering that day not so long ago. She placed her bike down near the dirt ditch and moved into the field. She let her fingertips slide across the tall grass and wild flowers. She always loved this field. It reminded her of a scene from a fairy tale book or something. She found herself twirling around amongst the wild flowers that were dancing in the slight breeze that had blown up. Sara played in the field for a few more minutes until she realized that stopping and playing was only going to delay her even more from her destination. She wanted to make it there before the sun went down. Sara turned back around and headed towards her bike that was still on the side of the road. As she moved back through the dancing flowers she grabbed a few and threw them into the white basket that was attached to the front of her bike. Just as she was lifting up the bike she heard squealing of tires and the smell of burnt rubber. Sara looked up and noticed that two cars were drag racing right down the road. One car must of belonged to a Social lite because it looked brand new, light blue in color and the top was down and it was full of boys that looked to be Sodapop's age. The other car was black in color and also had it top down and Sara could clearly tell that it was full of greasers or hoods, but these boys looked older than the boys in the blue car. Sara jumped down into the ditch and laid real low as the two cars speed past her. The blue car was on her side of the street and it swerved towards her and the ditch. She would have been a goner if it wasn't for the bike. The blue car had caught the back tire of Sara's bike and it was just enough to thrust the car back onto the hot top of the road. Sara watched as the car had come from inches of hitting her to speeding off down the road. Sara had completely stopped breathing thinking that her life was about to come to an end, but when she realized that it hadn't she took a deep breath of relief. After Sara had noticed that the cars were clearly out of sight she pulled herself out of the ditch and brushed her clothes off of the dust and dirt that had gathered there while she was hiding. Even though she had faired ok, she couldn't say the same about her bike. The back tire was all twisted and bent. "Great" she said out loud. "It looks like I'll be walking from here on out." Sara knew that this was going to prolong the journey so she reached down and picked up the bike and started pushing it towards the east. She had only been walking and pushing the bike for what seemed like ten minutes or so before she heard a car approach from behind. She didn't dare to look; instead she just dipped her head down low and looked straight at the ground. She could tell that the car was now slowly down as it crept closer to her. She kept praying that it wasn't one of her brothers or a Soc. She couldn't force herself to make contact with the slow approaching car. The car had almost come to a complete stop and was moving at the same speed at Sara. Sara quicken her pace, but so did the car. The boys inside weren't saying too much, just small talking amongst themselves.

Once the driver had gotten a good look at her he spoke, "Hey Kid, need a lift?" When Sara didn't respond of look up, the driver continued. "It doesn't look like you're gonna get far with that busted up tire." As Sara listened closely she knew that voice. It was a somewhat familiar voice. A voice that she had heard more often since her parent's death than she had before they died. This voice belonged to someone that had actually been in her house a few times, but she couldn't take the chance of the person recognizing her, or he would be dragging her back home to her brothers in a heartbeat. Nope, she couldn't let him recognize her. She kept her head down and only made contact with the ground.

"No, Mister. I'm fine." Sara thought if she tried to talk different, be more polite than he wouldn't recognize her. She was so thankful for Soda's ball cap, for if she didn't have it on, she would probably be pulled up by her belt loops and thrown into the car with the other hoods.

"Are you sure?" The driver questioned while Sara quicken her step, but the car continued to do the same.

"I'm sure. Please just leave me alone." Sara begged while trying to push her bike faster. There was nothing more coming from the voice and the group of boys but the driver continued to follow.

"Where are ya heading?" The driver asked again.

"Just down the road a bit." Sara knew she couldn't reveal too much information or her plan was going to be ruin.

"Do your brothers know you're this far from home, Kid?" And it was then that Sara knew her cover had been blown, but how she wondering. She hadn't made eye contact with these boys, she hadn't even lifted her head, but she couldn't let the driver know that she knew.

"I'm sorry, Mister, I don't know what you're talking about, I don't have any brothers." Sara knew that lying was wrong, but in this case what would one little white lie hurt. But the driver found what she said a little humorous for he started laughing a deep, evil type of laugh.

"Ok, Kid. Keep wishing that, because you and I both know that when they get wind of this, you'll be wishing that you didn't really have any brothers. I don't really want to get my head bashed in by your older brother. Just get in the car. I'll bring you home."

"Mister, you must have me confused with someone else. I am heading home, right now in fact. Thank you for the offer, but my parents taught me not to take ride from strangers."

The driver laughed again. "Oh, now I'm a stranger huh? You're just as stupid as the rest of them, aren't you? Well, suit yourself. Enjoy the walk home." But just before the driver took off Sara had lifted her head just a bit but it was enough for her and the driver to make eye contact. Yup, Sara knew exactly who the driver was and now the driver knew exactly who she was, not that he had any doubts before their eye contact. And with that the black Cadillac speed off down the road. Sara knew that she now needed to hurry to get where she needed to be, for she knew the driver of the car was gonna go tell one of her brothers and then they would be coming after her. Sara starting running as fast as she could down the road in hopes to get a good head start.

"Hey, isn't that the Curtis girl?" One of the hoods asked his buddy while he sped towards town.

"Yup." The driver responded.

"You must have a death wish with Darrel then, huh?

"Not at all, that's why we're gonna go and track him down to see if he knows about her little journey away from the neighborhood."

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Sodapop's face instantly paled as he saw Two-Bit and Ponyboy walking towards him with their shoulders slumped and heads hanging low. There was no sign of Sara. He knew what they needed to do next. "Two-Bit, do me a favor and run back to my house, and stay there and wait to see if Sara shows up. Steve, can I borrow your car?"

"Of course. Here's the keys." Steve said digging into his pocket to fish them out. Once he dug them out he tossed them into the air towards Soda's direction.

"Ponyboy, come with me. Steve, sorry man, I'll come back and finish helping you as fast as I can. It's just I need to do this."

"I know, Soda. Good luck."

Soda and Pony piled into Steve's car while Two-Bit jumped into his car and headed back towards the Curtis'. Soda sped across town driving like a maniac. "Slow down, Soda, you're gonna get us killed." Pony cautioned. Sodapop paid no mind to Pony and continued to drive way over the speed limit. He needed to reach Darry before any more time had passed.

Darry was up on the roof just finishing nailing down the final row of shingles. The other crew members were finishing around the chimney flute and eves, but Darry was finished with his part. He wasn't looking forward to his next task and that was going to talk with Steve. But he needed to get all his facts straight before he approached Sara. Just as he was gathering up his tools and placing them in his belt he looked up from the roof and noticed a familiar car flying at higher speeds then should in this family neighborhood. Darry started shaking his head. But as the car approached Darry soon realized it was Steve's car. Why would Steve be in this neck of the woods? Darry figured that he better climb on down the ladder and find out. He hollered over to the remaining crew on the roof. "Hey guys, I'm gonna clean up down on the ground. Bring down the rest of the supplies when you're finish. It looks like we'll be outta here earlier than we expected."

"Yeah, ok, Darrel." His coworkers echo while continuing to finish up their job.

Darry was just starting down on the rungs of the ladder when he heard his name being called from the road. Darry stopped and looked up and saw Sodapop and Ponyboy running towards him.

"What are you two doing here?" Darry asked with irritation of being bothered at work.

"Dar, you need to come down, quick!" Sodapop hollered up. Darry didn't have time for this; he needed to get his job finished. But as he was climbing down he soon realized two things. One was if both Sodapop and Ponyboy where hear than something major must be going on, for Soda wouldn't just leave work, and Pony wouldn't of left the house with knowing the consequence if he did, and two was where was Sara? The moment that Darry's foot stepped onto the grass, both Ponyboy and Sodapop where there waiting to explain what was going on. "Darry, you've gotta come quick. It's Sara, she just vanished. Ponyboy was taking a shower and when he came out she was gone. We've looked all around the neighborhood and there's no trace of her, anywhere, Dar." It was almost like the wind had just gotten knocked out of Darry, for he was just starring with a blank face at his brothers. He couldn't possibly believe what Soda was saying. When it finally set in he went into detective mode.

"What do you mean, she just vanished? Did you look around the house for some clues? Like if certain things were missing? I have a hard believing that she just vanished. This could be Sara deciding to get back at us for last night."

"You mean get back at you for last night?" Ponyboy was quick to correct his older brother. But Darry being Darry wasn't too pleased with that comment and wasn't afraid to let Ponyboy know so.

"Oh, and I guess that everything just went peachy with you two this morning then?" Pony knew that Darry had him there. His cheeks blush a little and before Pony could answer, Darry did so for him. "Yeah, that's what I thought." Darry ran his hands through his hair and took a look around the residence that he was working at. After standing there trying to clear his thoughts he turned back to his brothers. "Ok, so this is the plan. You two go back home. I want you to look through her things. Look to see if you can find Mr. Bear or her coat, or shoes, bags, things like that. If they are missing, then I'm gonna guess that she just didn't vanish, I'm gonna guess she probably ran away. Which is better than just vanishing, running away probably means we'll find her quicker than just as if she vanished. I'm gonna finish up here, and I'll meet you back at the house. Have you asked around the neighborhood if anyone has seen her?"

"Yes, I went over and spoke with Mrs. Anderson. She hadn't seen her, but said she'd keep an eye out for her."

"Park? The lot? The treehouse?"

"I didn't check the treehouse. I thought you told her to stay away from there because it was falling apart?" Pony asked.

"I've told her a lot of things lately that she hasn't listened to, so what would make you think this would be different?" Darry said a little harshly, but in reality the other two boys knew he was right. "One of you go check it out when you get home. Now get going before any more time passes." The two boys wasted no time and were back into Steve's car before Darry could utter another word. Darry watched Soda peel out and sped off down the road. He should of reminded Soda of driving under control but it was the least from his mind at the moment. Sara was consuming every thought in his head. How on earth could she do this? But then again Darry knew what had driven her to go this far, and all he could do was look up to the sky and yell, "This is the sign you send me? This is the way you send me help? Well guess what? It ain't helping none!"