Ponyboy: 50 years later

Ch. 4 Taking Off

We arrived at the airport around 7:35, got through security around 7:50, and got to our gate at 8. We had about an hour left until we took off, then a two hour flight, and then only a 15 minute drive from the airport to Darry's. I went over this with Chelsey and she said that I must've been excited if I was keeping such good track of time. I guess that was true, but I also was getting anxiety. I wasn't a huge fan of flying anyway, so that topped it. I decided to kill time by going over to the food court and grabbing a breakfast burrito and then do some work while waiting for our flight. On my way over to the food court, a group of Army soldiers passed by and I remembered the figure I had seen. Seeing it was weird enough, but then I wondered if it was somehow reminding me of something. I shrugged and walked on, got my burrito, and headed back to our gate. When I sat down and opened up my laptop to do some work, I noticed a guy who looked fairly familiar. He had darkish curly hair, brown eyes, and although he was sitting down, he looked tall too. He seemed to be my age, and I wondered vaguely if I knew him from somewhere. But before I got too deep into my thoughts, I went to work.

Besides starting up a farm some 20 years ago, I have a main job to pay for the bills and such. When I was younger I loved movies and some people thought I'd be a director. Although I still love movies, I never really wanted to work on them, just watch them. I was also a really good runner. I'm still in pretty good shape for being 64 but after going to college I stopped running as much. My friends used to think I'd be an olympian but one problem was money, and we always had money problems growing up. So I decided to try some classes in college. There wasn't a whole lot of options because I only went to a junior college in Oklahoma but I decided to take a class on engineering. And afterwards, that's what I became. It always helped around the farm if a tracker blew or if a water spout had broke. And it was good money too. But around the time I was 22, I realized how much, even not being in Tulsa, memories that had haunted me from when I was a teenager. I mean a lot had happened there, I lost my parents, I lost two of my best friends, and then Soda was drafted to war and never came back...That was why I moved out of Tulsa went I went to college, I just couldn't be at home any longer. I don't know how Darry stands being there...

I realized that I was dozing off and Chelsey was shaking me. "Pony, honey," she said patiently, "Come on, we're boarding." I jumped up and put all of my work supplies in its case, then followed her to the boarding desk. The man who I thought looked familiar earlier was in front of us and I tried getting a better look at him but he started walking away. "Sir?" The supervised said, "Sir, its your turn." I realized I had gotten sidetracked again and fumbled through my pocket for my ticket. She read it, chuckled, and said, "Ponyboy. Interesting name." I grinned, "Thanks." Then I noticed the familiar looking guy had slowed his pace and was looking over his shoulder at me. Chelsey saw this, "Do you know him?" She sounded a little concerned. I shrugged, "Not sure."

We boarded, found our seats, and after I had set my carrier bag down, I walked to the back to go to the bathroom. I'm fairly tall, so the bathroom is always a little stressful but I got through it. As soon as I turned to the bathroom sink, I looked in the mirror and just stared. I never really had looked at myself hard in a mirror before, except the time I mourned over my hair after my friend had bleached it and cut it, but that was mourning. There was something that I saw in myself. I looked younger. My hair was still blondish from when it had been bleached when I was a teenager and the grey blend into it better than dark hair, but it seemed more blonde now, and it looked as though I had less wrinkles. Strange, I thought. Nothing wrong with it though, looking younger I mean. I shrugged and went back to where Chelsey was sitting. I sat down and pulled out a book to read. Chelsey, who was reading a magazine, looked at me and chuckled, "Oh Pony, always reading." I grinned and then there was another voice on my other side. "Your name's Pony?" I turned and saw it was the guy who looked familiar. I was a little shocked. "Um, ya. My full name is Ponyboy." I was a little freaked out, I've never been good with strangers. He looked surprised to, "No kidding. I used to know someone named Ponyboy. Ponyboy, uh Citrus. No." He shook his head, "I can't remember their last name. Um, oh! Curtis!" I jumped a little, how did he know that. I stammered, "Do..do I know you?" He grinned, "Your name is Ponyboy Curtis?" He sounded surprised, yet a little happy. I was half frozen and Chelsey spoke up for me. "Who wants to know?" She sounded a tiny bit concerned, you would have to know her pretty well to tell. The stranger turned his full body towards us, "Ponyboy, it's me! Randy Adderson, ring a bell? We knew each other when we were teenagers." No wonder why he looked familiar, and why he kept looking at me when the flight supervisor said my name. I was still frozen, this was unbelievable! "Randy?" I gasped, "Randy, hey! How the heck are ya?" I reached out my hand across the aisle to shake his. He glanced behind me and I remembered someone. "Oh, I'm sorry, this is my wife, Chelsey." Since the aisle spread them too far to reach, she just waved. "Nice to meet cha." He waved back, "Ya, you too." Then he looked at me, "Wow, we got a lot to catch up on." I nodded, "No kidding."