Survive: A Darrel Curtis Love Story

Chapter 8

~ Chapter 8 ~

Ponyboy Curtis's Point of View

WHEN I CAME TO, I was being bounced around, and I ached and smarted, and wondered dimly where I was. I tried to think but there was a high-pitched screaming going on, and I couldn't tell whether it was inside my head or out. Then I realized it was a siren. The fuzz, I thought dully. The cops have come for us. I tried to swallow a groan and wished wildly for Soda. Someone with a cold wet rag was gently sponging off my face, and a voice said, "I think he's coming around."

I opened my eyes. It was dark. I'm moving, I thought. Are they taking me to jail? 

"Where…?" I said hoarsely, not able to get anything else out of my mouth. My throat was sore. I blinked at the stranger sitting beside me. But he wasn't a stranger… I'd seen him before…

"Take it easy, kid. You're in an ambulance." "Where's Johnny?" I cried, frightened at being in this car with strangers. "And Dallas? Blair?"

"They're in the other ambulance, right behind us. Just calm down. You're going to be okay. You just passed out"

"I didn't either," I said in the bored, tough voice we reserved for strangers and cops. "Dallas hit me. How come?"

"Because your back was in flames, that's why."

I was surprised. "It was?" Golly, I didn't feel it. It don't hurt. 

"We put it out before you got burned. That jacket saved you from a bad burning, maybe saved your life. You just keeled over from smoke inhalation and a little shock--- of course, that slap on the back didn't help much."

I remembered who he was then--- Jerry somebody-or-other who was too heavy to get in the window. He must be a school teacher, I thought. "Are you taking us to the police station?" I was still a little mixed up as to what was coming off.

"The police station?" It was his turn to be surprised. "What would we want to take you to the police station for? We're taking all three of you to the hospital."

I let his first remark slide by. "Are Johnny and Blair all right? What about Dally?" "Which one's which?"

"Johnny has black hair. Dally's the mean-looking one."

He studied his wedding ring. Maybe he's thinking about his wife, I thought. I wished he'd say something. It made me think of Blair? Was she even alive? Would she ever be someobody's wife someday? By the time she was, would we still talk to each other?

"We think the towheaded kid is going to be all right. He burned one arm pretty badly, though, trying to drag the other kid out the window. The other one seems to have just taken in a lot of smoke, a few minor burns like yourself. Blair, well, I don't know about her. A piece of timber caught her across the back--- she might have a broken back, and he was burned pretty severely. She passed out before he got out the window. They're giving her plasma now."

Blair didn't just get caught by timber. The whole roof fell on her back. It wasn't no piece of timber.

He must have seen the look on my face because he hurriedly changed the subject. "I swear, you three are the bravest kids I've seen in a long time. First you and the black-haired kid climbing in that window, and then the tough-looking kid going back in to save him. I've never seen a chick do something like that redhead did. Bravest girl I ever seen. Mrs. O'Briant and I think you were sent straight from heaven. Or are you just professional heroes or something?"

Sent from heaven? Had he gotten a good look at Dallas? "No, we're greasers," I said. I was too worried and scared to appreciate the fact that he was trying to be funny.

"You're what?"

"Greasers. You know, like hoods, JD's. Johnny is wanted for murder, and Dallas has a record with the fuzz a mile long. Blair-she's wanted for something. I dont know what."

"Are you kidding me?" Jerry stared at me as if he thought I was still in shock or something.

"I am not. Take me to town and you'll find out pretty quick."

"We're taking you to a hospital there anyway. The address card in your billfold said that was where you lived. Your name's really Ponyboy?"

"Yeah. Even on my birth certificate. And don't bug me about it. Are…"--- I felt weak--- "are the little kids okay?"

"Just fine. A little frightened maybe. There were some short explosions right after you all got out. Sounded just exactly like gunfire."

Gunfire. There went our gun.  Were we sent from heaven? I started to laugh weakly. I guess that guy knew how close to hysterics I really was, for he talked to me in a low soothing voice all the way to the hospital.

I WAS SITTING in the waiting room, waiting to hear how Dally and Johnny were. I had been checked over, and except for a few burns and a big bruise across my back, I was all right. I had watched them bring Dally in on a stretcher. His eyes were closed, but when I spoke he had tried to grin and had told me that if I ever did a stupid thing like that again he'd beat the tar out of me. He was still swearing at me when they took him on in.

Johnny walked in on his own. His head was down and a woman stood by his side. He was limping and his clothes were burnt, but he was alive. I stood up and I gave him the biggest hug I could have given at that point. When I jumped back into the church, I thought he was going to die. I thought his life would be gone just to save those kids. I know it was selfish, but Johnny would always be more important to me than all of those kids combined. He's my best friend.

Johnny hugged me right back. The lady sat next to Jerry and spoke with him for a minute before she up and left too. I asked Johnny if he had seen Blair, but he shook his head and returned the question. I shook my head too and we turned to the adults. They hadn't either. The best the lady could offer was seeing her being dragged out of the fire. 

Right at that moment, I did see her. She was on a stretcher like Dallas, but she really was unconscious. 

"Blair," I called gently, my voice trembling. I was afraid to stay looking at her, so I tilted my gaze to the stretcher's wheels.  I had been afraid to look at her, but I was relieved to see that her face wasn't burned so bad. The great of her was another story. I wanted to be sick. I'd never seen someone look so bad. I would have cried at the sight of him so still except I couldn't in front of people.

Jerry Wood had stayed with us all the time. He kept thanking us for getting the kids out. He didn't seem to mind our being hoods. I told him the whole story--- starting when Dallas and Johnny and I had met at the corner of Pickett and Sutton. I left out the part about the gun and our hitching a ride in the freight car. He was real nice about it and said that being heroes would help get us out of trouble, especially since it was self-defense and all. I was sitting there with Johnny, smoking a cigarette, when Jerry came back in from making a phone call. He stared at me for a second.

"You shouldn't be smoking."

"That's too bad," I retort. I didnt care what he thought about us anymore. He knew we were hoods. What else was there to know? I'm sure he knew I smoked. Then again, I had just inhaled a bunch of smoke so maybe he didn't. Everyone smoked though, especially greater. Even the girls did. 

Except for Darry, who was too proud of his athletic health to risk a cigarette, we had all started smoking at an early age. Johnny had been smoking since he was nine; Steve started at eleven. So no one thought it unusual when I started. I was the weed-fiend in my family--- Soda smokes only to steady his nerves or when he wants to look tough.  I had the worst habit of us all and everyone knew it. 

Darry got on me about it every once and a while. He said I'd ruin my lungs for track. I knew he was right, but I fought him on that too. I wish I hadn't. Where is he? Did someone tell him at work or was he gonna find out after. What about Soda? I looked at the clock. He and Steve would be at work right about now. They wouldn't be off for another two hours. Darry wouldn't be off for 3. 

"There are some people here to see you boys. Your brothers or something, " Jerry said. 

I leaped up and ran for the door, dragging Johnny with me, but it was already open and Soda had me in a bear hug and was swinging me around.