A Girl in New York (Pre/Sequel to The Outsiders: A Girl in the Gang)

Chapter 9- I Wasn't Really In Trouble

Note to Readers: I put a map to the right of cities in Oklahoma so you know what I'm talking about.  Please comment and vote!

         I was woken at five in the morning to someone knocking on our door.  I lay in bed for a while to see if whoever it was would go away or not.  The knock came again, louder and more insistent this time.  Knowing Dally usually slept like the dead, I figured I’d better go answer it cause he wouldn’t, and I dragged my butt out of bed and downstairs.

        I opened the door and rubbed my eyes, the sky was just starting to lighten in the east and it was fairly dark out yet and hard to see, and I was pretty sure I was seeing a police officer at our door.  I blinked a few times, but my eyes weren’t deceiving me no matter how much I wished they were.

        A burly officer was standing there, and he glanced at me in my baggy pajama pants and too big shirt and asked, “Is this the Winston household?”

        I knew what he was there for, and I knew I would get in trouble for my answer, but I said anyways, “No, it’s a haunted house.  What the hell are you doing here at five in the morning?” I asked, irritated at being woken up. 

        No one in their right mind wants to mess with me when I’ve been woken up, ever.

        He glares at me and ignores my response, instead asking sternly, “So you must be,” and he pauses to consult a paper he was holding, “Tara Winston,” he says, more of a statement than a question.

        “Give the man the Nobel Peace Prize, he’s a genius,” I said sarcastically.

        Again he gives me the watch-your-mouth-or-you’ll-be-in-big-trouble look and says matter-of-factly, “You are required to attend a court trial this afternoon at one o’clock at the court house, and if you do not show up then we have the right to arrest you.”

        “Well then have fun trying to arrest me,” I said bitterly before shutting the door in his face.

        I didn’t realize what he’d actually said until after I had closed the door.  I was either going to get sentenced to reform school if I did show up, or arrested if I didn’t.  Neither one of those options seemed favorable to me, and I knew I had to get out of here, fast.

        Trying to be as quiet as I could, I dashed upstairs and got dressed in jeans and a T-shirt under a plaid button-up, grabbing my leather jacket and a handful of cash that I had saved up over the years, in case something like this happened.  I made sure to grab my blade and sunglasses, because if I was running away I needed some sort of a disguise.

        I climbed out my bedroom window, balancing on the ledge and then leaping to the nearly dead oak tree in the yard along the side of the house, scrambling down that and heading for Windrixville.  I had climbed out the window so as to not wake Dal, and just in case the fuzz was still there, but he wasn’t. 

        I was going a lot farther than Windrixville to hide out though.  No one was going to find me until I wanted them to.

        I hopped the eight o’clock train to Broken Arrow, and then hid out in an abandoned warehouse until nightfall.  I didn’t know any of the area in Oklahoma besides Tulsa, but I wasn’t worried.  I could take care of myself, I had done it for six years after Dal left when we had lived in New York.

        I absent-mindedly wondered how long it would take before the gang found out I was missing and started looking for me as I lazed around all day in the warehouse. 

         I wasn’t really in trouble, except for running away and not showing up in court and defying an officer and breaking Mr. Hollister’s bones for the sole purpose of revenge, but that was a lot better than murder which is what Johnny and Pony had run away for a few months ago, before I moved to Tulsa.  Not to rag on Johnny and Pony or anything, Johnny only killed him in self-defense.

        When night came I headed into the town I had passed through that morning and entered the nearest gas station.  It was deader than dead, and even though I had the money, I swiped some food and a coke.  I wanted to save my money for when I left the state.

        I ate my stolen goods on my way to the railroad tracks, and then after the railroad workers passed, I jumped into an open train car and fell asleep on the way to Muskogee.  I was going to be riding all night tonight and into early afternoon the next day, so I didn’t have to worry about staying awake.  My gurgling stomach when I got hungry again would serve as an alarm clock to wake me up before I had to get off.