changes

chapter eight

It was getting close to pony's fourth birthday. Darry and soda wanted to make it special since it was the first one without their mom and dad. They had less than a month to prepare. When they asked pony what he wanted for his birthday abd he would give them the same answer, "a bike".

They looked at bikes in all the stores, and new that even if everyone pitched in, they still could never afford one. Darry and soda felt like failures. More than anything they wanted to make their baby brother happy.

At work the next day, darry's boss called him into the office. "Take a seat darrel" his boss my jackson requested. "Is something wrong boss" darry was starting to worry. The last person who was called into the office was fired. "No no, nothings wrong, darrel, look i know you have a small brother you take care of. And well my young boy has recently turned seven" "ok mr jackson, i'm not sure where your going with this" darry started to say.

"Look just hear me out, so as i was saying, my son turned seven, and we got him a new bike for his birthday, we still have his old one and my wife thought you might like it for your little brother. Its in the back of my truck if you want to see it" his boss finished explaining. Darry was gob smacked, he didn't know what to say. "Oh thank you so much mr jackson, you have no idea how much this means".

Mr jackson took darry over to his truck. He pulled out the smaal bike. "It may need a little bit of tlc, but i figgured between you and that mechanical brother of yours, you could fix it up real nice" mr jackson said.

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Darry dove straight over to the dx after he finished work. He showed soda the bike his boss had given him. There wasn't too much wrong with it. "Wow darry, this is great, i just hope pony doesn't change his mind" soda said taking the bike. They decided that until it was ready, they would keep it at the dx and work on it there. This way they wouldn't risk pony seeing it before his birthday. Soda spent every lunch break over the next few weeks fixing the bike up.

Two days before pony's birthday, darry bought training wheels and out on a brand new coat if paint. Once the paint was dry, darty covered it over with an old sheet.

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The morning of pony's birthday, darry and soda both went into his room to wake him up. "Morning pony" "happy birthday little man" they both said. He stired a little but still hadn't opened his eyes. The older boys started to tickle there baby brother until he woke up laughing so hard. "Come on pony, don't you want your presents" soda asked excitedly. "And cake" darry added.

Before they could say anything else pony was out of bed. Darry gave him a piggy back ride to the lounge room, where the rest of the gang was waiting. They all said happy birthday. Dal gave pony a bear like the one they saw at the zoo, two-bit gave pony a hat with mickey ears on it, johnny gave pony a colouring in book and some crayons and steve him some toy cars. Pony loved all his presents.

"Ok little buddy, close your eyes, make sure he's not peeking soda" darry said as he brought the bike into the room. "Ok you can open your eyes now kiddo happy birthday" soda and darry both said together. The look on pony's face was what they were hoping for. He was so happy.