So You're Leaving?

train station

Dally walked quickly along the quiet, dark street. He hoped he would make it to the train station in time. He had felt a little guilty leaving Johnny, but now all his attention was focused on getting home to help find the youngest member of the gang. Stupid kid, Dally thought for the tenth time. Running off and not telling anybody where he was... Dally had only walked about a quarter mile when the rain started. He grumbled slightly and flipped up the collar of his jacket. He had walked almost a half mile when a Corvette pulled up beside him. His first instinct was to reach for his blade. All the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he tensed up and prepared to be surrounded by Socs. Dally scowled as Will pushed open the passenger side door. "Get in." Will said. "No." Dally said slamming the door shut and walking away. Will rolled the window down and trailed along beside him slowly in the car. "C'mon, Dally-" "I don't need your charity!" Dally shot back at him. "Dally! We owe you! You did a full work load at the stables!" Dally kept walking. "What are you doing here anyhow? How did you even know I was leaving?" "Get in and I'll tell you." Dally gave a rude reply. Will watched him. He thought for a minute and realized that he was never going to convince Dally to get in the car for his own sake."You are never gonna make it in time," he said finally. "Your friends back home need you, now get in!" Dally paused. Lightening lit the sky. He sighed finally and turned to look at Will. Wordlessly, he got in the car. Will quietly let out his breath in relief. "Johnny told you, didn't he?" Dally asked accusingly as they started driving. "Damn that kid-" "C'mon, Dally." "When? When the hell did he have time to tell you?" "Last night. I climb up the trellis on the side of the house sometimes and knock on his window." Dally stared at him. "What? Why would- No wonder the kid is having nightmares! Geez, Will!" the minute it came out of his mouth, Dally wished it hadn't. "Nightmares? What do you mean?" Will looked genuinely concerned. "Nohting... He's fine. What do you do that for anyway? That seems like a really stupid thing to do." Will paused for a moment, debating whether to push the issue about Johnny having nightmares, but then he grinned like he had a great secret. "All right, I'll let you in on it. You ready for this? I got a telescope on the roof." Dally put on his best bored face. "So you wake the kid up every night to play with a damn telescope?" Will was unphased by Dally's lack of a reaction. "Not every night. Just sometimes. Like last night." Truth be told, what Dally had really felt when Will told him this was a pang of jealousy. He pictured Will sneaking over to the house from his little carriage-house cottage next door and hanging out with Johnny on the roof for half the night- drinking beers and looking at the stars... almost like the gang hanging out in the vacant lot. Why hadn't he been included in this little secret society? And Johnny hadn't even mentioned it. As soon as that thought entered his head, he shook it away. For crying out loud, it wasn't like it was his family. This was Johnny's home. Dally had no place here. He was glad to be leaving. "Why's that such a big secret anyway?" Will shook his head and laughed. "It's only a secret for now. I got it for Tom for Christmas." "And you're just going to play with your brother-in-law's Christmas presents till then?" Will laughed in a way that reminded Dally of Two-Bit. "Yup. Anyhow, that's when Johnny told me about your friend and how you were going home. Johnny said he was going to wake Tom up to come get you. I got thinking about it and I figured I'd come out instead. I left a note on the kitchen door." Dally was shaking his head and staring out the window. "Stupid kid," "Aww, c'mon now, Dally. Don't talk that way about him. That kid thinks you're just the coolest guy in the world. He talks about you all the time. He really looks up to you, you know? He's pretty broken up about you leaving." Dally just continued to scowl, but inside he felt the ache in his chest get bigger. He had so much on his mind, so many emotions running through him that he was not used to. He missed Johnny already, he was scared about Ponyboy and he was just starting to kind of like Johnny's new family until he heard about the skeleton-in-the-closet. Now he wasn't sure what to think of them. He wasn't sure what he felt about Will most of all. Part of him felt angry that Johnny had been cheated out of a normal family life, but it really wasn't Will's fault. Dally was sure that he really didn't have any idea that he was Johnny's real father. Grandma Cade was right. He was just too... oblivious. Probably too consumed with grief over the death of his wife. And he seemed to Dally to be wrapped up in material things, though he was not what Dally would consider materialistic. It was like a crutch- the Corvette, the telescope... He got toys to occupy his mind, to keep his thoughts away from somehing else. Dally didn't like the fact that something horribe had happened to Will, but he didn't feel bad enough not to be angry at the same time. Whether directly or indirectly, he had been in some way responsible, in Dally's eyes, for what Johnny had been through. And to Dally, that was unforgiveable. They pulled up to the train station and Will got out and walked Dally up to the boarding gate. "Just in time!" he said proudly as the train whistle blew in the distance. He pulled a piece of paper out of his coat pocket and handed it to Dally. "Here's a little something I picked up for you last night." It was a train ticket. Dally looked at it hesitantly. His eyes narrowed. He really didn't want to take it, but he didn't have time not to. Ponyboy was in trouble and he needed to get home. "Did you even sleep last night?" Dally asked wondering how on earth the man had found time to hang out on the roof, go pick up a train ticket and get up at 4 a.m. Will grinned, looking so much like Johnny it was almost frightening. "Nope. Sometimes I don't." He looked down for a minute, masking a saddness in his eyes. "Just the way I am. Now go on, take it!" Finally, grudgingly, Dally reached out and took the ticket from Will. He did not meet his gaze. "Thanks," he mumbled, looking at his shoes. "Dally," Will extended his hand. "Thank YOU. Johnny really needed your visit. He was really homesick and we were getting worried about him. You're the only one who could've helped him. We're all real glad you came." Dally looked at him finally, his eyes were so much like Johnny's. After a minute, he reached out and shook Will's hand. "Dally, you're welcome here anytime. You remember that now, you hear?" Dally nodded and got on the train. I'll be back, he thought. After I clean up the mess back home, I'm gonna make sure the mess out here gets cleaned up too.