A New Perspective

4

Darry and Soda were arguing, and I just sat there. I still couldn't believe what I saw. "Darry, you have put him through enough already, I don't think he'd want you chasing after him right now." Soda said, anger tinged in his voice.

"Can you two shut your traps? You've been arguing for over twenty minutes and this isn't going to help us in any way!" I stood up from the kitchen table and grabbed my bomber jacket, "I'm going out to find him. Hopefully I'll be home with him in tow." I quickly left the house and began to speed walk down the street.

The air was cold and crisp. I saw footprints that led out to the park and followed them to a dark lump lying on the cement with a dark pool around it. That's when I started to run. The only thing going through my mind was that the thing lying on the ground was a dead Ponyboy. When I got to the body, I realized it wasn't Ponyboy, but a Soc.

Beside the dead Soc was a switchblade. It was Johnny's. I realized now what had happened. Ponyboy had run off, gotten Johnny and came to the park. I guessed they had gotten jumped and Johnny had killed one of the Socs, unless the body next to me was the only Soc here.

I saw more footprints and I trailed them all the way out to Buck Merrill's place. I pounded on the door, hoping for an answer. Buck swung the door open. The smell of liquor wafted into my face, and loud music infiltrated my ears. "I need to talk to Dally! It's an emergency!" Buck looked back into the room, "He's busy!" I groaned, "Just tell him it's Pepsi, he'll come!"

Buck closed the door and I sat down on the steps, hoping to see Dally walk out the front door. "What's going on Pepsi?" Dally asked, sitting beside me and passing me a cigarette. "I gotta know where Ponyboy and Johnny are."

Dally sighed, "Sorry, I don't know." I glared at him, "I call bluff. I saw some iced footprints leading right to this door so you oughta start talking truth." He looked disappointed in himself. "They stopped by a few minutes ago, maybe ten. Asked me for money and a gun. Then they left." I squinted my eyes, taking a drag of my cigarette, "Did you give them money and a gun?" "Yeah. Johnny said he killed a kid and Pony ran off because of Darry. Sound familiar?" I nodded, then stopped. "Dallas Winston you gave Ponyboy Curtis and Jonathan Cade a lethal weapon and money? What the hell?" I almost yelled. "I'm sorry. They said they were going somewhere but they never said where to." I put my head in my hands. I'm really hoping this won't be hard to explain to Darry and Soda back home.

                               - · -

I pushed open the door and let it shut behind me. "So? Where is he?" Darry asked, looking up at me. His eyes were puffy and red. I've never, in my four months living here, seen Darrel Curtis cry. Not ever. "I'm... I'm not sure..." I said, almost crying myself. Ponyboy is missing. "What the hell do you mean you're not sure?" Darry said standing up.

I quickly spoke, "Well I was walking past the park when I noticed a dark lump on the cement. At first I thought it was Ponyboy but when I got closer I saw it was a dead Soc. Johnny's switchblade was covered in blood down to the hilt and I saw two sets of footprints leading away from the body. I followed them out to Buck Merrill's place where I met up with Dally. He said they'd showed up, asked for money and a gun, and left without telling him where they were going." I took a deep breath.

"Did Dally give my kid brother a gun and money?" Darry said, angry. I nodded. "I'm going to beat the pulp outta him I swear." Sodapop said quietly. "So now Ponyboy and Johnny are missing." I stated.

"I guess we have no other choice than to call the police." Darry said, walking over to the phone. I left the room and sat outside on the porch steps. I couldn't believe it. Ponyboy and Johnny were missing. I felt a strong hand on my shoulder. I looked up to be met with the eyes of Sodapop Curtis. He sat down beside me and hugged me. I never knew that's what I'd needed at the time. A good hug. Darry cleared his throat from behind us, "Pepsi, Chessie called. She's got a question for you." I walked inside and picked up the receiving end of the phone. "Hey, Chessie. What's up?" I said, hearing the melancholy tone in my voice. "Well, Talyn got hauled into the cooler for causing a public disturbance. Since she was our guardian and she's jailed, we need to find a more suitable home. I'm going to New York with Uncle Monty. Would you want to come with?"

I glanced around the room. Do I really want to move to New York? I sighed, "I'm sorry Chessie, but I can't. My two buddies were caught up in a murder scandal and they ran away. One of them has two brothers and they aren't taking this well. I want to help as much as I can." "Wait, who are you staying with right now?" Chessie asked. "I'm living with the Curtis family. Darry and Sodapop. Ponyboy was the one to run away." "Well I'll be damned I haven't seen them in a hot minute. How have they been doing?" I shrugged, "Pretty good, they're taking the situation pretty easily."

"I'm sorry to cut this short Pepsi, but I've got to go. I'm packing for New York and had to make sure you were okay." Chessie said. "It's okay. I'll wait for a call when you get to Uncle Monty's." I said, hanging up. I felt kind of bad for doing that, but I didn't feel like talking on the phone.

I sat back down on the steps outside. Darry sat down beside me. The sun was beginning to rise. I swallowed my pride and asked, "Hey, Darry?" He looked at me, "Hmm?" "What do you think of me?" Darry thought for a moment. "Well," he started, "You are like the little sister I never had. You help around the house and bring a lot of happiness into the family that we all needed." I grinned, thankful that there wasn't any negative response. "You're like the big brother I never had."

"Darry, its six twenty. You've got work in ten minutes." Soda said, popping his head out the door. Darry cursed under his breath and rushed inside. Soda had called into work saying he wasn't going because of a family issue.

"Any idea what we could do today Soda?" I asked, since there wasn't a whole lot to do. "I'm not sure Pepsi. Maybe we could go see a rodeo or go say hey to Steve down at the DX." Soda offered. "Sounds fun. We should ask Darry for a ride there, he might be okay with that." With that, Sodapop jogged off to ask Darry to drop us off at the DX.

I then realized how many friends we have who don't know about what happened, and I'm pretty sure I'll be doing most of the explaining.