BLACK SHEEP | DW

024.

"oh future! don't ask us who we are and what we want from you, for we don't know either."
- mahmoud darwish, tr. by catherine cobham

the week dragged on as if it had forever. Dally hadn't shown up for court, just as he claimed he wouldn't, and venus had been distracting herself with movies and parties and western bars.

at this moment in particular, dawn had not yet begun to break and the music sifted through the diner, infiltrating the teens. johnny had sat with the girl in a booth, neither saying anything for longer than they would like to confess, and watching cautiously, observing the people around them.

the two looked like an interesting pair of characters, both beat up and over tired. it was as though they were composed of nothing but symptoms of pain, struggle.

"why did you do that?" johnny asked. he had asked the question many times before, but was never satisfied with the answer he received.

how could venus, someone he knew to be so generous and giving, try to defend someone as callous and reckless as Dally?

venus rolled her eyes at her friends question; she was sick of hearing it. "you want to know why?" she asks rhetorically, but he nods anyways. venus laughs sarcastically, picking at the old fraying edges of the booth. "call me by a man's name instead of a woman's, and everything i have done suddenly makes me a hero, not a fool," she says quietly.

johnny faltered in the face of shame and guilt and regret. she was beautiful, crushingly so, but not beautiful in the way paintings are beautiful or flowers are beautiful, but instead in the way that greek tragedy's are beautiful. she was silly and fragile and good.

put most simply, venus was good.
and Dally was bad.

that was so trivial is it not? how could you put two people who teeter on opposite ends of the spectrum together, and possibly expect any good to come from it. but just like johnny knew that, venus also knew that the good could not exist without the bad, and the bad could not exist without the good.

"where do you think he went," johnny asked, tearing his napkin to small shredded bits in a nervous nature.

venus shrugged simply, lightly rolling her finger over the cracks in the seat. "dunno," she mumbles. "texas, mexico, could be anywhere honestly." the girl watched as two police officers entered the front of the diner. "but he did the smart thing, getting the hell out of here."

johnny nodded as the two, wide eyed, watched the uniformed police swagger up to the table. they shared a nervous glance as the one pulled out a note pad.

"you two know Dallas Winston?" he asked roughly and johnny realized they were next to be in trouble if they didn't lie like hell.

"yeah we know him," venus replied just as roughly, turning away from the cop.

venus hated police officers. she always thought if you gave a man too much power, a badge and a gun, that it would never do anything beneficial. she always saw her dad as the good guy and the police as the bad guys, and little would change her mind about that ever.

the cop brought a pointed finger to her face, extending it to motion at her bruise. "he do that to your eye?" the law enforcer asked.

the girl scoffed, crossing her arms and slouching into the booth as some sort of retaliation. she was baffled at the question. "what this?" she mused. "no way, man. i got this cause Dally isn't here."

the police officers were in silent contemplation for a minute and johnny stared at the girl bewildered. the unfathomable lack of speech was killing her, so she decided to clarify. "look, we don't hang out or go to the movies or anything, but Dally is my friend. what ever you think he did, i'm sure it's not true."

shaking his head in disbelief, the cop put his hand on the table, leaning into face the agitated girl. "you do know that he is wanted for failure to show up to court, jumped three kids, and resisted arrest right?"

venus lied through her teeth. "i did not."

johnny looked at her, pleading her to say something that will make their story more convincing, and once again venus found herself defending this dammed boy. "listen, officer, with all due respect, this town is full of gangs and bullies and messed up shit. honestly, it's a dangerous place for everyone. you got kids getting jumped just walking home and other kids dropping out of school cause they don't feel safe there," she stated honestly.

the officer backed up, shocked by her bluntness, but the girl continued anyway. "look, i'm not saying Dallas is a paragon of virtue, but shit, he's been dealt a bad hand. so you're gonna have to find someone else to rat on him," she states firmly.

standing up from the booth, johnny follows her lead, staring down the two cops. "now me and johnny got to sneak off home, cause without Dally here it's like hunting season on both of us. so are we free to go?"

the cop begrudgingly nods, and venus pulled johnny's arm, not bothering to pay on the way out of the diner.

the two sat in her car, silently. johnny's head was running wild with thoughts about what had just happened.

the girl had protected his friend, once again.

he figured Dally might be the luckiest guy in the world. not only did he have someone to stick up for him when he wasn't around, but she was someone so frivolous with delicate beauty.

the two slipped briskly into some understanding, a state they will never recover from.

johnny knew that venus was the one who was supposed to make Dally confront the darkness in himself, and that Dally was the one who was supposed to make venus confront the darkness in the world.