"I Hated Sunsets"

Chapter Twenty Four

I didn't know what it was about him that made everyone flock to him, I didn't like him too much, I liked people like Soda and Two bit, they were like the superheroes I would read about in my books. Dally was nothing like them though, he was real, he was so real that it scarred me.

After a couple minutes of running my house came into view, the screen door and the actual brownish white door that we never used closed, I had never ever seen it closed, not even when nobody was home.

I waited outside, not really wanting to see what news was to come. After a good hour, I saw Dallas coming up the drive way.

The door clicked and open, creaking as I walked with Dally inside. There was a collective gasp and I bursted up the stairs to see what was going on, reopening the screen door.

"Can I see him, please?" a high pitched voice said weakly from a wheel chair on the other side of the room. It was Baby, she didn't look good at all, no color in her face and a bad amount of baggage under her eyes.

Still, as she took the kid wrapped in the leather jacket from Dallas she had a sense of something in her face, something I hadn't seen from her before that was similar to the way I had seen Dallas hold the kid when I walked in on them.

"Pony..." Darry said sadly when he looked over from Dallas to me. I sighed.

"Can you help me outside?" Baby said, losing the strength in her words. In a hurry I sprinted over to her and began wheeling her out the door, loud steps from the whole gang following behind us.

Soda ran in front of us to get the screen door, looking outside in the process. He held the door for us as I rolled Baby to the part of the porch you could see the whole sky from. Then the screen door clashed shut, disturbing the unspoken peace that we all had.

Darry and Steve had there arms crossed while leaning against the wall on opposite side of the screen door, Two bit and Dally were leaning against the wooden railing that separated the patio from a drop to the ground and I stood behind Baby, who was holding her child.

For a second I almost forgot that she had told Dallas about the baby all those months back then when he got out of prison. He didn't believe her back then, but even he knew that the baby, with its dark hair and high cheek bones, was his without a doubt.

I wished that I could stay in this moment forever, everything was perfect, the sun was even starting to set, but I knew I couldn't get to attached to the moment.

Looking down at Baby who was starring into the beautiful sunset, I closed my eyes and started to say in a hushed voice to myself something I had learned by heart;

"Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay. "

Slowly I opened my eyes again to see Baby's neck craned in an unusual position to look up at me.

"C'mon, please take it easy Baby Cakes." Dally said while walking over to her. Baby ignored him and still looked up at me, her light eyes starting to glaze over with tears.

"You know Pony" she coughed then looked back up at me "I hated sunsets..."

She wheezed before being cut off and beginning to cough out violently. I took a step back and looked at her in horror as dark red blood started spewing from her mouth, wrenched out in the deep violent and frequent coughs.

Dallas ran over to her and picked her up out of the wheel chair as I took the child from her lap. He took her head in his arms and shoved her into his chest while still cradling her as she continued coughing and wheezing painfully.

"Oh, dammit Baby, not you too, don't die, please don't die..." Dallas swallowed and reached to push Baby's hair back, lowering his head down to her shoulder.

"I needed you." he chocked out an thrashed his head, and from the little he pulled away, I could see dark red blood dripping down his white shirt where Baby's head had been on him.

Dallas needed Baby, just like he needed Johnny.

Dallas gripped Baby's head and pulled her near his face as he heard that she was trying to say something, and I saw her mouth moving slightly. Between bloodless coughs I saw Dallas give Baby a kiss on the cheek, her head craned up towards the sky, gasping for breath. Then, it went deathly quiet.

Dally let go of Baby and she limply collapsed to the ground, her grey eyes wide open, forever starring at the sunset sky above us.

Dallas lowered himself down with her motionless white body, I couldn't hear any other voices except for his and I barely heard him say his last declaration of love.

Baby Johnny bursted out crying in my arms as I saw Dallas shove a hand into his pocket and start to run off in a fit of rage, throwing down his cigarette and taking out his black gun as he turned a corner into the dark alleyway.