A little winston

Part 2

I couldn't rememberr my dreams when I woke up, I went downstairs to fix breakfast since I was the first one up. When I stepped into the kitchen I saw Dallas hunched over In front of the fridge, shuffling through it. "Mornin' Pony" he grunted. "Geez Dal, you look real tired..." I said " yeah, I didn't." He grunted. " I was up all night, worrying" "Oh geez Dal, why don't you go sit down and try to relax, I'll make some eggs." I said. Dallas wandered over and sat down on the couch. Soda was up next, followed soon by Darry. We all ate in silence. No one really wanted to say anything, Dallas was already in a bad mood. "Hey Darry?" Dallas asked as Soda and him stood up to do the dishes. "Yes?" Darry said softly as he turned on the sink to fill it with hot water. "How do child-proof my place?" He asked. "Dallas..." Darry began "She's fourteen, not four... clean your house, get rid of all the empty liquor bottles, full ones too now that I think about it... we don't know her history with alcohol. Hide your cigarettes and heaters, for her safety, at least until you get to know her." Darry concluded. "Thanks" Dallas said, real quiet. "Boy Dal, you sure must be nervous" I said, Dallas looked at me, I shouldn't have said that, he was really mad. "Yeah no really" he snapped.  "Pony, didn't you get a reading list from your English teacher?" Darry asked. "Yeah" I answered. "You'd better get started, it'll be done for the summer and ol' Dal needs to be left alone for a little bit." Darry warned me. I cussed under my breath and went upstairs. I scanned my bookshelf, I looked at all the titles of my summer reading. None of them sounded very good, too much romance. I saw at the end of the shelf, gone with the wind, I loved that book. I picked it up and turned through the beat up pages. "Scarlet O'hara was not beautiful..." I read to myself. I had lost all counts of time until Soda knocked on the door and brought me some lunch. He handed me a baloney sandwich. "You know..." Soda told me as I took a bite. "You may want to read just a bit quieter, the lot can hear you downstairs" Soda said. I gulped. "Gee, I'm sorry Soda." I said. "How's Dallas?" I asked. "He left not to long ago, he figures he only has four days to clean, not enough he said!" Soda said. "Oh, ok" I said. "You can come on down now if you want, it's Sunday, Darry and I don't work today, do you want to go play some football with the gang in the park?" Soda asked. "Yeah!" I replied. We met up with Two-Bit, Steve, and Johnny at the park, split into teams and played. It was hard game, Darry used be a real good player when he was in high school, so our team lost, of course. If was getting dark when we started to head home. "What do you say we go check on Dallas?" Asked Darry, "He's probably driven himself mad.." we walked over, Soda knocked on the door. I could hardly believe my eyes when Dallas opened up the door, his whole house was usually covered in butts and littered with empty bottles of beer. It was completely clean. "Can I borrow a duster and a mop?" Dallas asked Darry as we stepped inside, "Sure, come by and grab 'em tomorrow" Darry said. "We just stopped by to make sure you were doing okay" Darry said. "Oh, Thanks, want a drink?" Dallas asked us. "No thanks" Darry answered, "Dallas, please try and calm down, try and get some sleep tonight." Darry said softly. Dallas just nodded weakly. Darry shooed Soda and me home while he stayed to talk with Dallas. "Dal must be so scared, I'm don't think he thinks his sister I gonna trust him. I mean I sure wouldn't." Soda said. "Hey Soda!" I said quickly, "Yeah Pony?" He asked . "Lets pick up the pace!" I said harshly as I pointed behind me, a blue mustang was right on our heels. Soda looks over his shoulder, cussed and started running, I followed but we weren't fast enough to out run a mustang. They eventually caught up to us and a few socs got out. One had a blade, one had a flask and one was unarmed from what I could see. The one with a flask had on lots of rings, he was the one who beat up Jonny and spooked him real good, that's the soc who have the scar on his cheek. They circled around me and Soda, I opened my moth to scream but the soc with nothing put me in a choke hold, the one with the blade pulled it to Soda's neck. "Hey look! If it isn't a couple a greasers!" The one with all the rings taunted as he strutted around us.  "BOB! shut your trap and get all your butts back in this car! I hate fights!!" A girl yelled, my vision was starting to get real fuzzy but I could just make out Cherry Valance  yelling at the socs from the car. They all cussed and dropped me and Soda on the ground. Cherry rushed over to us and asked if we were ok before apologizing and getting back into the car with the soc boys and driving away. "Gee Pony, you look awful pale" Soda said to me. "Lets go home." I said in a wavering voice. Soda nodded and we consisted the walk home in silence. The next thing I knew I was laying in bed, Soda snoring and soundly sleeping next to me.