A lifetime ago.ĭally raised the gun, and I thought: You blasted fool. It was only yesterday that Dally had told Johnny and me that. It ain't loaded, but it sure does held a bluff. I remembered his voice: I been carryin' a heater. Dally had reached the circle of light under the street lamp, and skidding to a halt, he turned and jerked a black object from his waistband. Doors slammed as the policemen leaped out. The wail of a siren grew louder and then police car pulled up across the street from the lot. WE REACHED THE vacant lot just as Dally came in, running as hard as he could, from the opposite direction. Things were sliding in and out of focus, and it seemed funny to me that I couldn't run in a straight line. We all left the house at a dead run, even Steve, and I wondered vaguely why no one was doing somersaults off the steps this time. He's, just robbed a grocery store and the cops are after him. The phone rang, and after a moment's hesitation, Darry turned from me to it. Maybe that's why they're all looking at me, I thought, they can hear my heart beating. My heart was pounding in slow thumps, throbbing at the side of my head, and I wondered if everyone else could hear it. "I don't want to sit down."ĭarry took a step toward me, but I backed away. I felt as if any minute I was going to fall flat on my face, but I shook my head. I backed up, just like a frightened animal, shaking my head. "Ponyboy," Soda said softly, like he was talking to an injured animal, "you look sick. Darry said something in a low voice to Soda. "So he finally broke." Two-Bit spoke everyone's feel ings. Why can I take it when Dally can't? And then I knew. "He ran out like the devil was after him. Two-Bit's eyes were closed and his teeth were clenched, and I suddenly remembered Dally. Soda made a funny noise and looked like he was going to start crying. I don't think any of us had realized how bad off Johnny really had been.
I don't know, he just died." He told me to stay gold, I remembered. But he's not dead, a voice in my head said. he's dead." My voice sounded strange, even to me. I looked at all of them, a little frightened. Oh, let's don't start that again, I thought. Weren't Soda and Steve planning a party after the rumble? They all looked up when I walked in. They were lounging around, reading the paper and smoking. One side of Two-Bits face was taped up- I found out later he had four stitches in his cheek and seven in his hand where he had busted his knuckles open over a Soc's head. There was a Band-Aid over Darry's forehead and he had a black eye. Soda had a wide cut on his lip and a bruise across his cheek. His eyes were closed, but when the door shut behind me he opened them, and I suddenly wondered if my own eyes looked as feverish and bewildered as his. Steve was stretched out on the sofa, his shirt unbuttoned and his side bandaged. What was left of our gang was in the living room. What's your address? I'm not about to dump a hurt kid out on the streets this time of night." "Gosh, mister, I'm sorry," I said, dumfounded. I reached up to scratch the side of my head where it'd been itching for a while, and when I looked at my hand it was smeared with blood. "Hate to tell you this, kiddo," the guy said dryly, "but you're bleedin' all over my car seats." I'm okay." Johnny is not dead, I told myself, and I believed it. "Are you all right, kid? You look like you've been in a fight." The man, who was in his mid-twenties, looked at me. I might have stumbled around all night except for a man who asked me if I wanted a ride. I must have wandered around for hours sometimes even out into the street, getting honked at and cussed out. I'd go home and walk by the lot, and Johnny would be sitting on the curb smoking a cigarette, and maybe we'd lie on our backs and watch the stars. Johnny was somewhere else- maybe asleep in the lot, or playing the pinball machine in the bowling alley, or sitting on the back steps of the church in Windrixville. That still body back in the hospital wasn't Johnny. Dally had taken the car and I started the long walk home in a stupor.
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