The Outsiders: Before My Time Part III

The Nightly Double Reprise

Goldie's POV
April 2, 1965

I don't know where I was going, but I knew that I needed to get us as far away from that gas station as possible. My mind was racing as fast as my heart was pounding. I couldn't tell if meeting my father was going to be a good thing or a very bad thing.

Candy was sitting in the passenger seat, essentially paralyzed from everything that just happened. Red was sitting in the back, staring at the back of the seat in front of him with his eyes fixated but lost in his own head.

"Are we just not going to talk about what just happened?" I asked to snap them back to reality.

"What are we supposed to talk about?" Candy asked, now facing me.

"I-I don't know," I stammered.

"I don't have a clue," she said in a lower voice.

"This is wild," I said. I regripped the steering wheel because my palms were sweating.

"Did you hear about what they said about the Nightly Double?" Candy asked.

"Yeah?" I glanced over at her for a moment but I kept my eyes on the road.

"We should go."

I burst out into boisterous laughter. "No, absolutely not."

"Why not? We have nothing else better to do. Besides, I bet if Dad is going to be there, Mom will be too."

"So?"

"So, that's what we want, right? We can talk to them and see if either of them knows anything."

I remembered the conversation Steve and Soda had before we left the store about a girl that Soda was thinking about. I really wanted to know who that was. I asked, "what if they don't know each other yet?"

"Then we can try to get close with Dad," she stated.

I blew air into my cheeks so it was like I had a bubble in my mouth and I blew it out between my lips in thought. We are wasting time just by trying to figure this out. Playing it safe might end up making us shoot ourselves in the foot. I hate to admit it, but Candy was right.

"Fine. But this is only to find a way to get back home," I agreed.

"I think I'm just going to stay close to Mom and you guys can handle Dad."

"That's a good idea, I don't want us all to pile on one of them and freak them out."

"What movie is going to play?" Red asked from the back seat.

"I'm not sure," I said honestly.

Using my muscle memory, I drove us to where the Nightly Double is. Dad has pointed it out almost every time we drive past it, as if he forgets every time. Uncle Johnny bought the drive-in back in the 80s but Ponyboy has owned it for the past fifteen years. Apparently he used to go there a lot as a kid. He takes good care of it, the sign is on every night, they use the original concession stand from when the drive-in first opened back in the 50s, and the seats are also original but seem new. He has so much pride in it. And it's so popular for all ages. We used to go all the time when I was a kid, but I haven't been there in years.

We checked the movie that was playing tonight, it was The Sound of Music. It started at seven o'clock, which took me a moment to translate to nineteen-hundred hours in my head. In the early 2030's, everyone tells time through the twenty-four hour clock. I remember the change vividly because of how mad and annoyed my parents got about it. I had to remember that in 1965, Americans use the twelve hour clock.