I stood in shock. Looking from one face to another in that room we were all in shock. We had to get out of there because we were sure the doctor would have called the police by now. We filed out filled with shock, anguish and emptiness. Buck had gone. Dally was nowhere to be seen so we all walked home. No one spoke. We just walked. When we got to my house, Steve was passed out on the couch, Soda was half-concious with his head on the table and Darry sat reading the paper. The door slammed behind me.
Johnny's dead and Dally bolted was all I could manage. Darry started walking at me and I seriously thought he was going to hit me. As he got into my face the phone rang. He stopped, turned and picked it up. Dally's voice, sounding really strange poured through the phones speaker so we all could hear him. He had robbed a store and the "fuzz" were gaining ground on him. He was headed to the vacant lot down the street. Darry dropped the phone and yelled "run". Out the door and down the street we ran. We had to help Dally so we'd go help him escape from the cops.
We got to the lot and could see Dally running towards us from the other side. Suddenly he turned, and we all started to frantically wave. As he ran under the streetlight, he stopped turned towards the police that weren't far from him and reached into his shirt like he was pulling out a gun. The cops reacted. They fired. Dally fell where he stood. Dead. Dally had no gun, or weapon he had just made it look like it. He wanted to die. He was dead. First Johnny, now Dally. Blackness closed in and I hit the ground.
When I awoke Soda was sitting on the edge of my bed telling me to just go back to sleep. I pushed the fog from my mind trying to remember but Soda just ordered me to go back to sleep. I guess I did because I awoke later Darry was sitting beside me passed out in the chair. I hit his knee and then jiggled his leg. He came too and was so happy I was awake. He had stayed home from work to watch me since I was so sick. They figured I had a concussion and that all the action had overloaded my system and I just collapsed. I just lied there trying to remember what had happened. As it came back I felt hollow and empty. Soda came in and smiled when he saw I was awake. They had all been so scared when I hadn't woken and three days had gone by.
Darry offered me my favourite, mushroom soup. He went to fix it. Silence filled the room and before I knew it both Soda and I had drifted off to sleep. Later that day Darry said I had to stay in bed for the next week. No school, no work, nothing but rest. I hated staring at nothing but the ceiling, it was going to be a long, long week. One day Darry came in and said someone was there to see me. I thought maybe he had brought a doctor but was shocked when he told me it was a guy named Randy.
Randy came in and looked quite serious. He told me he had news I might not be so thrilled to hear. I said nothing and just looked at him. The police had convinced him to testify in the case of the murder of Bob. He had told them everything, including the Soc's beating of himself and Johnny. He told me I needed to testify to back his story up so he didn't have to go to jail. My mouth dropped. I couldn't do that. I wouldn't do that, I was going nowhere near the police. He could see the answer in my eyes. He continued to assure me that he was pretty sure I would be found innocent since it was Johnny who had done the stabbing. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He was asking me to give up my dead friend.
I tried to defend him and take the blame but Randy knew I was being drowned and Johnny protected me by pulling the knife on Bob. I grabbed my head to try to get the room to stop spinning. Darry walked in and seeing me that way made him tell Randy he had to go. I wasn't to be upset for I was way too fragile. I just stared at the cigarette I had lit, looking like I forgot what it was for. Darry knew it was bad, led Randy out and yelled..."put that stupid cigarette out!" I did.
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