The Outsiders Imagines and Short Stories

Schoolboy Father | Ponyboy

I counted on my fingers almost one hundred. Nine months. I even looked in a dictionary just to be sure. It'd been just a little over nine months since summer camp. Darry sent me off to a camp over in Bixby for a week and a half. I met this really great girl there, Christie. We were each other's first everythings.

After we 'made love' (as she liked to put it), for the first time, she decided she never wanted to see me again. I don't usually rush things, but there was something about Christie that made me do everything for and with her. Turns out I just wasted my time. After I got back home, I really wanted to go talk to Johnny and Dal about what happened, but then that real awful reality check had to nip me in the ass again. They ain't there to tell me what I did wrong, especially Dally. I was just left keeping that secret to myself for months on end.

And that was until today, when Darry was readin' the paper, there was an announcement about a Christie Ludwig givin' birth to a boy. I recognized the name immediately and now I'm in class, in a complete daze as I think about the fact that I'm a dad and I never knew it 'til now. Christie was a Soc and I knew it by the way she dressed at camp, but Socs have gotten a whole lot tamer ever since Bob, Johnny, and Dallas got killed. Christie's father never liked me though and I guess that had some influence as to why she dumped me in the first place.

"Mr. Curtis." I jolted up and looked at my teacher, Mrs. Jones, "Tell me what I just asked you."

I stuttered, trying to think of what she could have been saying the whole time while I wasn't paying her the slightest bit of attention. I drew a blank just when the bell rang. I gathered everything I needed, but I was stuck in my chair, listening to announcements. As soon as the announcements were finished, I raced out of that classroom, not even stopping by my locker or to say goodbye to any of my friends.

I don't really know what I was running from in the first place, especially since I had work afterwards. I worked as a busboy in Jay's diner, since the Dingo got blown to bits not too long ago. Curly came in about halfway through my shift, sitting at his usual corner table. "How're you doing, Curtis?"

"I been worse." I told him honestly, cleaning a table beside it

"Yeah? Heard you was a scatterbrains at school today."

"I think I've always been one o' those." I told him sarcastically, hoping he'd find his way out. Curly was a good guy, at least to me, but I was looking forward to work as a way to give me time to think about Christie and her baby. She told me I was her first and I was the only guy she ever spent time with at camp. There was no way it wasn't mine. I slaved away the rest of my shift, praying that the clock would strike six and I could get the hell out.

When six rolled around, I ran faster than I had earlier, thanks to track, to the bus stop. I hopped on, paying my fare, and instead of telling the driver to drive to North St. Louis Avenue, the street where I grew up, I told him to drive to Tulsa General. And that's exactly where the bus route took me. Filled with more energy than before, I ran inside the hospital, looking for the maternity wing. My mind was too filled with searching for Christie, or even the nursery, that I never took a moment to remember that this was the place where my best friend died.

I walked up and down the hallway, eventually catching sight of glass walls with grandparents and fathers staring through. It reminded me of the zoo, with the babies being the captive animals. I hurried over and looked in, staring at all the sleeping kids. They all looked the same. I strained my eyes trying to read the cards on the plastic cribs.

A nurse in the care unit noticed me searching for Christie and I's son, asking me "What's the mother's name?"

"Ludwig." I told her