The outsiders

Breakthroughs

The whole gang was trying so hard to get soda to remember something...anything. He had remembered his name but that was about it. We all were sleep deprived and frustrated. It was a bad time for all of us.

Then suddenly we had something.

We were all laying on the couch trying to nap, not succeeding because an old Mickey Mouse was still on and all of us know that as long it was on, none of us would be sleeping.

Soda was holding my hand tightly as he ate some of Darry's world famous chocolate cake, it was one of the only things we could get him to eat, but none of us had complained.

His hand hadn't left mine since he had woken up. Sometimes his hands would shake and his whole frame would quickly follow. The weird part was that he would only let me near him when he got like that. He would whimper my name and wrap his arms tightly around me and put his head in my lap and I would stroke his hair softly. He was almost always cold, I figured that he was in a cold place for a little over three weeks. He would shiver uncontrollably in T-shirts and shorts. I would usually pull a blanket or something over him and lay him across my lap and gently stroke his hair.

But today was special.

He was sitting there eating his chocolate cake when Steve drove on up in my car and soda looked out at it.

"2014 mustang." He said absentmindedly.

I had spent hours with him a week before this all happened helping him learn the different types of modern cars. I laughed a little that one of his first recalled memory was of a car.

He smiled at me and pecked me on the lips. I was shocked, it was the the first time he was really comfortable and it really excited me.