Chapter Twenty:

(Darry)

This is not gonna happen again, I told myself firmly as I stepped toward Ricky. Holding my hand out to him, I ordered, “Gimme the gun, Priest.” He looked as if he was going to argue with me for a moment, but a soft sigh escaped him before he stretched his arm out toward me, the shotgun gripped loosely in his hand. “Good.”

I took the gun carefully, making sure to keep it pointed downward at the porch floor as I put the safety on and bent down to lay it on the top step. No one screamed at me, so I figured the policemen had an idea of what I was doing, and no one shot at me. For that, I had my clean record and reputation to thank.

“Hands up, Priest!”

Ricky rolled his eyes at me and raised his arms up above his head. “This gets old after a while, ya know. I should jus have them permanently glue my damn arms to the sides of my head.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, whether from relief or from the comment he made, I didn’t know. “Jus do as they tell ya, Ricky,” I said as I backed up to stand with Soda near the door. “I’ll be down to bail ya out before they get ya fingerprinted.”

“C’mon down the steps slowly!”

He shot me a wide grin before starting down the steps. “Don’t worry bout me, Curtis,” he said in a low voice. “They’ll let me go in the morning.” He chuckled softly. “Besides, it’s worth it to see those assholes scatter like cockroaches when the lights come on.”

I felt the screen door open behind me and glanced back to see Pony watching the ruckus going on in our front yard with wide, glazed eyes. “Keep yer mouth shut, kiddo,” I ordered softly, slipping an arm around his shoulders as he started past me toward the steps. “And stay up here outta their way.”

“W-What happened, Dar?” His face paled slightly as he watched the policemen handcuff Priest and shove him into one of the cars in our yard. “Why’re they taking Ricky?”

“Don’t worry bout it, Pony,” I replied, gripping his shoulder to keep him from going off the porch. “Priest had a little run in with some Socs, and he’s gotta go downtown for a while.” Turning him around as the police cars started backing out onto the street, I gave him a little shove between his shoulder blades. “Go on back to bed. We can discuss it in the morning when we’re more awake.”

Looking back over my shoulder, I watched the last policeman pick up the gun before walking back to his own car. “Ya too, Sodapop. It’s bed time.” I held the screen door open so he could go into the house, and followed him inside. “Both of ya get to bed.”

“’Kay, Dar,” Pony replied sleepily, trudging toward the hallway unsteadily. “Night.”

Soda paused at the side of the couch and stared down at the figure snoring there incredulously. “How the hell can he sleep through all that racket, Dar?”

“Steve was drunk when he got here.” I put an arm around his shoulders and steered him toward the hallway. The quicker I got them back in bed, the quicker we could forget about what had almost happened. “He’s probably passed out.”

“They came here for Pony, didn’t they?” He stopped abruptly halfway down the hallway to stare at me with wide, frightened eyes. “How did Priest know they would come?”

I sighed silently. I had hoped to avoid those questions, and here my brother was asking both of them in one breath. “Yes to yer first question, and I have no idea to yer second one.”

He gave me a confused look for a moment before the puzzled look cleared from his eyes and he nodded tightly. “Do ya think this will end it, Dar?” He glanced back over his shoulder toward the bedroom. “Will it end now?”

“I dunno, Pepsi,” I answered truthfully. I hoped Priest had scared those Socs enough to where they would forget about any more plans they may have for my little brother, but there was no way of knowing how they thought. “We can hope.”

When he sighed, I patted him on the shoulder and forced a smile on my face. “Jus get some sleep. We can discuss it more tomorrow when we’re all more rested.”

To my relief, he nodded and disappeared into the bedroom at the end of the hallway. Running my fingers through my hair, I pushed my own bedroom door open and went inside. Hopefully that would be the end of any plans those Socs had about coming after Pony again. They had seemed to be pretty scared of the shotgun, and more so of Priest. Maybe he’d gotten it through to them that we wouldn’t allow them to hurt anyone else in this family.

(Sodapop)

The house was eerily quiet the next morning when I got up, and Darry’s truck was missing from the driveway, which was odd for a Sunday morning since he didn’t work today. Steve was still passed out on the couch when I reached the living room, so I knew it would be a morning of silence until he woke up, or until Darry got back from wherever he had gone off to.

Stumbling into the kitchen, I got out the milk and the chocolate syrup before collapsing at the table to mix me a pick-me-up, blinking when I noticed the piece of paper sitting near Darry’s place. At least he’d left a note, I told myself while yawning. That was more than any of the others did when they disappeared.

Picking it up, I scanned it quickly and finally understood that he’d gone down to the police station to explain to them about why Priest was shooting off a gun in front of our house early this morning in an attempt to keep them from sending him off.

Sighing, I turned the syrup can up and let the chocolate run into the bottom of my glass. If anyone could convince them not to keep Priest, it would be my brother. He’d been afraid they would shoot the younger boy last night just like I had been, and I knew it had affected him more than anything else that could’ve happened to us.

“Where is everyone?”

Setting the chocolate syrup down on the table, I lifted the jug of milk and poured some into the glass on top of it. “Darry’s at the police station,” I informed my little brother as he stumbled into the room bleary-eyed. “Steve is still unconscious on the couch, and I’m right here in front of ya.”

“Police station?” He dropped down into the chair across from me, his eyes losing the sleep glaze as he comprehended what I had said. “What’s he doin down there?”

I shrugged and dropped a spoon into my glass, stirring the contents with a frown. “He went to get Priest out, I guess.” I shoved the note Darry had left across the table to him. “That’s what I gathered from the note he left.”

He scanned the note quickly, a soft sigh escaping him before he leaned back in the chair. “So it’s over?” His eyes were relieved as he watched me stirring my milk. “It’s finally over?”

“Guess so.” I dropped the spoon onto the table beside my glass and grinned. “Darry will tell them what was goin on out here last night, and they’ll do something bout it.”

“Ya hope,” he said cynically. “They are Socs, after all.” He jumped nervously when the front door slammed shut in the next room, his eyes growing anxious as heavy footsteps moved toward the kitchen. “Darry’s back.”

I hesitated with my glass halfway to my mouth as our eldest brother entered the kitchen and went straight for the coffee pot. “Hiya, Dar. How’d it go?”

Darry poured a cup of coffee and turned to face us, leaning back against the counter. “As well as can be expected considering,” he replied with a faint smile. “They’re gonna keep an eye out for those idiots with the torches, and Priest was let go an hour ago with a warning to not be shooting off guns anymore.”

“Where’d he go?” Pony asked quickly, leaning forward with his elbows on the table. “He come back with ya?”

“Nope. I dropped him off at Rob’s,” Darry answered, sipping his coffee. “He wanted to check on Jesse.” Pushing away from the counter, he joined us at the table. “There will be some rules we have to follow, guys. The cops will keep those guys off us as long as we don’t do anything to antagonize them.”

I nodded my agreement, more interested in my chocolate milk now that I knew the harassment would stop. “Can do.” I had no problem there since I didn’t come into contact with them very much except at work.

His gaze shifted to our little brother’s impassive face. “That goes for ya, too, Pony,” he added in a softer tone. “No mouthing off to them, and no damaging personal property.”

Pony stiffened slightly, but nodded his agreement without a word. I could tell he was upset by the last part of our brother’s ultimatum, but he would get over what had happened eventually. None of us had ever been the type to dwell on the bad stuff for long.

“So that’s the end of it?” I asked, raising one eyebrow at Darry. When he nodded, I sighed in relief and turned my glass up to down the last of the milk.

“Turn the page,” Pony said softly, his eyes on the tabletop in front of him.

“What’d ya say, kid?” Darry asked in astonishment, his coffee cup hesitating near his mouth as he stared at our little brother.

Pony shrugged. “I said ‘turn the page’.” He smiled faintly and pushed his chair back from the table. “Ya know, Dar. What ya do when ya get to the end of a story?” Walking over to the doorway, he paused to look back at us. “Time for one story to end and another to begin. A new page.”

We exchanged a look as he disappeared into the living room, neither of us believing what he’d just said. Before we could comment, a loud voice went off into a stream of cursing in the next room and our brother’s laughter was heard echoing back to us.

“Dammit, Pony!” Steve roared. “Whatcha do that for?”

Darry got to his feet quickly, his coffee forgotten. “Cruddy hell,” he muttered as he headed for the door. “He jus had to get Steve started this early in the damn morning, didn’t he?”

I laughed and leaned back in my chair as the cursing and laughter grew louder. This was much better than the tense silence, and harsh words that had been going on around here lately. I could stand the swearing and laughter much easier than the previous month’s slamming doors and screaming.

Turn the page……..