Swimming ||| The Outsiders

two

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The next day, I didn't see Johnny. I wasn't surprised. For one thing, it seemed like it took him a lot of courage to even show up the first time, so showing up a second time would take a lot more guts than Johnny seemed to have.

For another thing, it was raining.

I woke up to the phone next to my bed ringing, and Richards voice sounding through the receiver. I don't remember exactly what he said, since I was still half asleep, but I did pick up the gist of what he was saying. The pool was closed, and I didn't have to work. I would have jumped for joy if I hadn't immediately rolled back over and fell asleep again,  the soft putter-patter of raindrops outside lulling me right back into the catatonic-like state I was in before.

"Don, I made hotcakes with bacon grease!" Ah yes, Theresa's hotcakes, the cure to any coma. I was up in mere seconds, and down the stairs, standing in the kitchen doorway, eyes closed and nose up in the air, taking a deep breath in. Buttery, sweet bacon-y goodness filled my nostrils.

"I love hotcakes," I murmured, in a sleepy daze.

Teresa laughed, standing over the stove, moving cooked cakes onto a flower-covered serving dish, the ones my parents got as an anniversary gift years ago and never used. Teresa would always use them, though. She loved the small pretty things, like that grease covered plate. "I thought you were dead asleep."

"I thought that too." She turned off the burner, and put the pancake stack on the table in the center of the clutter-filled kitchen. A bouquet of flowers were there too, wildflowers, like the ones that grew in our garden. "When did you pick those?"

"I ran out five minutes ago." She sat at her seat, and pulled three cakes onto her own plate with her fork. I next to her, and noticed her wet hair and the drops of water seeping into the shoulders of her shirt.

"Why'd you do that, stupid? It's pouring buckets." I drenched my pancakes in honey and attempted to shove half of one into my mouth. It was more difficult than I thought.

"I wanted them. I like lookin' at them inside." She stared at them, with her face in her hand, with a small smile on her face. "And the hard rain ruins 'em. Makes 'em all soggy. I'm saving them, really."

I thought that was a backwards way of thinking, that cutting them and keeping them half alive inside was saving them. But I didn't tell her that, cause she looked so happy with them. I replied with a muffled grunt, over my mouthful of food. "Where's mom and pops?" I asked, after I swallowed, but she just shook her head, chewing.

"I don't know," she eventually replied, in a more subdued, disappointed tone. "I woke up and they already left. Maybe at work? They always seem to be working." She muttered the last bit, sounding sad, but shoving a too-large piece of pancake into her mouth.

I didn't reply, just shrugged. It didn't both me. I never saw them anyway, being at school a thousand miles away most of the year anyway. But I could tell it hit Teresa hard, them being gone all the time. It left her constantly alone.

Alone. I thought of Johnny. "Hey Terry," I scraped the last bit of honey off my plate with the side of my fork. "You know a Johnny? From your school?"

"You mean Johnnycake?" Her face lit up. "Small, black haired, tan as ever?"

"Yea. He came by the pool yesterday, said you was in his English class. I thought he was thirteen years old or somethin', till he said that."