A Very Bad Night.

Okay, right now I have to explain something to you. My name is Ponyboy Curtis and I have been transported into the future. I have to tell this story in the form of a blog because the only other version of it is in the form of a little known book written by a crazy girl that I was able to convince to write it. I have only been using these things called "Computers" for a short amount of time so I have only now realized how to "Blog". Please, take all of this seriously, for if you don't the mighty iPods will enslave us all (I can't explain this to you, they said that you shouldn't know too much about the future). Well, back to my story.
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So, when I got back to the house I swallowed five aspirins when nobody was looking, showered, and got dressed. While I was waiting for everybody to get ready for the rumble I started to ask everybody why they like to fight, and got some good answers out of all of them. When I was all relaxed and ready to leave Darry came over to me and said that I didn't look too good and probably shouldn't be in the rumble. Just as I was about to lose all hope Soda stepped in and we convinced Darry that I could fight. After our little discussion we all went flying out the door (and by flying I mean we leaped and did acrobatic tricks through the air) and we headed off towards the vacant lot.

When we arrived at the park we saw that the other gangs were there waiting for us. It was quite a sight to see all of the greaser gangs gathered in the lot, but we walked right up and shook their hands showing them that we were all on the same side for the night. When I look at these guys it just makes me want to make something of myself even more, I don't ever want to grow up to be like what these guys are now. Some of us had been spread out and talking to the other gang members, but when the Socs came we all went back to our own gangs. We all lined up and cleared out the rules, but when it came to starting it nobody moved. Then Darry stepped forward and said that he could take on anyone, when nobody came forward I was starting to wonder if anything was even going to happen this night, but then one Soc came forward and said "Hello, Darrel.", which was met with a  "Hello, Paul." It was apparent that there was some history between these two guys, because all they did for the next minute was glare into the other's eye and radiate hate out to everyone else. They started the fight by walking around in a circle facing each other, waiting for the perfect time to strike. But just then Dally ran in telling everybody to "Hold up!", and when Darry stopped and looked over the Soc took his swing. The fight was on. I looked around, but to my misfortune I couldn't find a Soc my size, so I took the next best one and jumped on him. Dally was right beside me already fighting a guy and we were able to have a brief conversation about why he was here, until the Soc I was fighting pinned me down and was punching me to death. But Darry came to my rescue and knocked the guy off of me. I decided that I would be of better use helping Dally since he only had one good arm, so I went over and jumped on the Soc's back trying to strangle him. He knocked me off but I went right back up there. Then Dally knocked him backwards and we all rolled on the ground. I can't really remember much of the rest of the fight too well, but It goes something like this: One Soc was kicking me extremely hard while I Dally was punching him and I was still grasping around the neck of the one Soc. Then the one that was kicking me kicked me really hard in the head that I just had to lay limp and try and not blackout. All of a sudden he stopped kicking me, and then I heard somebody that sounded like Two-Bit (I wasn't sure if it was him) yelling that the Socs were running away! We had won! I looked over and I saw all of our gang members, but event though they were black and blue that were all cheering.

Dally stood beside me for a minute watching the scene, but then he turned to me and told me that we were seeing Johnny, so I ran after him (well, not really ran, more like stumbled) and we hopped in the car. We were driving really fast towards the hospital, but when a police car pulled us over we were able to trick the policeman into escorting us through the city to the hospital. When we arrived at the hospital we ran through the lobby and into the elevator, but when we got to his room the doctor said that he was dying. Dally pulled out his blade and demanded that we see him, but then the doctor said that we could see him only because we were his friends, and not because of the switchblade. I was really scared when we walked into the room, I saw Johnny there lying still and white and I was scared that he was dead already, but Dally called his name softly and he woke up. He told Johnny about what happened and that he was proud of him for doing what he did and being a hero. Then Johnny looked over to me and said "Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.", and then he died. I didn't know how to take it, but Dally seemed to be taking it pretty terribly, he went a little crazy, freaked out, and then bolted out the door.

Being sick is NOT a fun thing

I had to spend another whole week lying in bed, and I am not the kind of person who can just lie around and do nothing, so I read and drew pictures pretty much the whole time. When I was off in my mind thinking about things Darry came in and said that Randy was here to see me, so I told him that he could. He said that he came to see if I was okay, and to talk about the court session the for the next day. He told me about how his dad was all upset about all of this, and he said that my parents were probably feeling awful about it too, so I had to explain to him that they were dead and Darry had to take care of us and how I might end up in boys home or something if the judge thinks that Darry is an unsuitable guardian. Then he went on to tell me that I didn't do anything and that it was Johnny that had killed Bob, but I guess that somehow I thought that I was the one who killed him, so I started to tell him over and over again that it was me who did it. Just as I was about to freak out over this Darry walked in and told him that he should leave. Then Darry walked into the room and told me to put out my cigarette, so I put it out and we had a little chat, but when he went to leave he called me "buddy", which he had never called me before, and it kind of made me feel better.

The Worst Night EVER

I still didn't believe what had happened was real. I don't think that I knew what I was doing, but for the next few hours I pretty much just stumbled around town convincing myself that Johnny wasn't dead. If this one guy hadn't stopped and picked me up to take me back home I don't know what would have happened. It wasn't a pretty sight back at the house, everybody seemed to be beat up pretty badly. They were all worried about where I had been, so I told them everything that had happened. When they heard that Johnny died they went silent and had shocked/grieved looks on their faces. Then I told them that Dally had blown up and stormed out. Darry then looked at me and told me that I looked sick and he thought that I should sit down, but even though I felt terrible I told him that I felt fine and I didn't want to sit down. By this point everybody was looking at me, but just as this was going to progress further the phone rang (saved by the bell). When we heard that Dally had robbed a grocery store and was being chased by the cops we all bolted out the door to meet him at the vacant lot so we could hide him.

When we finally arrived at the vacant lot we saw Dally come running in and all of my anxiety washed away. But then just as I had begun to settle down a few police cars pulled up on the side of the road and they jumped out. Just as Dally was under the street lamp's light he whipped around and pulled out his empty gun. All feelings of hope that I had vanished that instant, Dally had told me that he had been carrying a gun that had no ammunition to use as a bluff, but the police didn't know that it wasn't loaded, so they shot at him many, many times, and that was the end of Dallas Winston. I felt terrible, worse than I had ever felt before. Then it seemed as if the whole world was spinning around and around, and before I knew it I saw the ground come at me very quickly.

When I finally woke up there was a light shining into the room and the whole house was quiet (which is really strange, usually there's at leased something blasting sound through the house). When I looked over I saw Soda sitting on the edge of the bed watching me. I asked him if I was sick and he told me I was and that I should go back to sleep, so since I was really tired I closed my eyes and fell right back to sleep. The next time that I woke up it was about midday and I was starving, but my stomach was very uneasy and I knew that I wouldn't be able to hold anything down. I looked up and saw that Darry had fallen asleep in the armchair, so I woke him up and he filled me in on everything that had happened. Then Soda came bouncing into the room and was very excited to see me (the only way I could think of describing it is like a puppy that hasn't seen you for a day), he kept on jumping on the bed and pounding on my shoulder. Darry went to make me some soup, but then Soda crawled into be next to me and we were both out before Darry could return with our food.

Poor Johnny

Two-Bit and I were waiting anxiously outside of the room to see Johnny, but the nurses wouldn't let us in. I was getting pretty angry, but then the doctor came by and saw what was happening so he let us in. When we were in we rushed over to the bed to and found Johnny lying still with his eyes shut. We told him about how they put us in the paper for being heroes, and then we asked him what he wanted us to bring him. He told us that they didn't give him enough hair grease, and he wanted us to get him a new copy of Gone With The Wind for me to read to him, so Two-Bit ran out to the drug store to get one. I let him know that Darry and me were "Ok", and that Dally would be ok. I was really scared for him, he was looking terrible and I didn't know how much longer he could go on, he kept telling me of how terrible he was feeling and how scared he was of dying now that he was so close to death. I couldn't think of anything good to say to him then, and I can't think of anything that I could have said to him now. Just then a nurse popped in the door and told him that his mother was here to see him, but I think that that was the last thing that Johnny wanted to happen. He told her that he didn't want to see her, but the nurse insisted so Johnny got a little angry and started to name off al of the bad things that she would do, but then he turned gasped, turned white, and passed out. Just as Johnny passed out Two-Bit walked in the door and the nurse hurried us out the door. We saw Johnny's mom in the hallway, she was really angry and was yelling at a nurse about how she has the right to see her son and such. Then she saw us walk by and gave us the worst look I could imagine, I think that it was actually a crueller glare than Bob's parents could have given us. Then she started to yell at us about how all of this was our fault, and just as Two-Bit began to shout back at her I pushed him through to Dally’s room so that he couldn’t swear at her (I hate when woman get sworn at, even if they really deserve it.). I was pretty anxious to see how Dally was doing, after seeing how bad Johnny was, but he seemed to be doing well. He talked about how Tim Shepard came over and talked about how good the rumble was going to be, then he told me that he was scared that he had killed me or something when he knocked me down at the church and that he was just trying to put out the fire on my back, and was glad that he didn't kill me. When he told me that he was glad that he didn't kill me I felt almost as if some weight had been lifted off of me, I had never liked Dally, but now I felt almost as if he was a great friend of mine. I looked over and saw Dally looking out the window with a worried look on his face, then he asked us how Johnny was doing. Two-Bit told him that we had just finished seeing him and that he had passed out when we left. Dally looked really hurt from that news and he clenched his teeth and swore to himself, than he asked Two-Bit if he could borrow his favourite black-handled switchblade (which nobody has ever done before). Two-Bit handed him the blade and we left to take the bus home.




When we got to the bus stop I sat down on the bench and waited while Two-Bit ran to a gas station to buy us some cigarettes. I was feeling pretty terrible, and I had almost fallen asleep when Two-Bit came back to get me. When he took a look at me he saw that I was sick, so I convinced him not to tell Darry and we went home. When we were passing by the vacant lot we saw Cherry sitting in her Corvette waiting for us,so we walked over and said hi. She told us that the Socs were going to fight fairly (Skin only), and after Two-Bit was reassured by her he turned and walked home. Then before I could go anywhere Cherry asked me to stay and extra minute. She told me that Randy wasn't going to show up for the fight, and that it wasn't because he was chicken or anything, but he was just sick of fighting after Bob was killed. I asked her to come and see Johnny, but then she said that she couldn't, she explained that it was because he had killed Bob and she went on to tell me about how great a person he was. This all got me a little angry and before I knew it I yelled at her. I started to walk away, but I saw that she was on the verge of crying, so I stopped and listened to her. She told me that she wasn't trying to give me charity or anything, but that she was only trying to help. So I mentioned that I was sorry (In a way) and we went our seperate ways.

Bye-Bye Mr. Soc

We were sitting in the waiting room to hear how Johnny and Dally were, and there were reporters everywhere. They were swarming us and kept firing question after question at us, but I wasn't in very good shape to be questioned so Darry was keeping the reporters off of me, but Soda was having fun pretending to be a reporter and running around writing notes and such. After a while the reporters started to go away and slow down the questions, and Soda was tired of playing around so he just curled up on the bench, so the doctor finnaly told us how they were doing. Dally wasn't too bad, his arm was burnt and he'd be scarred for life,but he would be ok a few days. I was relly scared for Johnny though, his back had been broken from the timber falling from the church, he was in severe shock, and he had third-degree burns all over his body. We had to go home so we all piled into the car and drove away, I was so tired that as soon as I got into the car I had drifted off to sleep.

I got up first so I had to make breakfast. Just as I got the eggs and chocolate cake out of the fridge Two-Bit and Steve came in and grabbed me and spun me around which made the eggs in my hands fly across the room and shatter. This made me prettymad, but I got over it. They told me about how all of the newspapers were saying that we were heroes! I was really excited and I couldn't put the newspaper, it explained everything that had happened to us, it even mentioned what was hapening back at home with Darry and Soda and how they had to drop out of school and get jobs just to support me. Darry and Soda had to leave for work so Two-Bit stayed back with me. We went down to the conveniance store where we grabbed some Cokes and sat down to have a smoke. Just as we sat down the blue Mustang that had been trailing us earlier pulled in. Randy came out and said that he wanted to talk to me, so since there wasn't allowed to be any fighting until the rumble I want over to him. He told me all about how he didn't want to be a Soc anymore and he reinforced what Cherry had told me. Then he told me that he was just going to run awayand get out of all of this mess. So then I said goodbye to the no-longer Soc, Randy Adderson.

From Bad to Worse

We talked for a little bit in the Dairy Queen and learned that the Soc Cherry was sort of our spy. When we were ther we both decided to turn ourselves in, but while Dally was against our plan he still started to drive us back to the city. Just when we got to the top of the hill we saw that there was a bunch of people around the church and that the church was on fire! We ran over to the church and asked a man what was going on. Apparently they were they were having a school picnic and then all of a sudden the church was on fire. The man didn't seem to worried about the whole situation, but then one woman rushed over and told him that some of the children were missing. We heard some screams coming from the church and dashed into action without even thinking. There was about four or five little kids in the back, so we pushed out the window and started picking them up and dropping them out. Just as we finished I hopped out the window, I heard a whoosh of flames behind me and Johnny screaming, but when I turned to go back and help him Dally hit me hard across the back.


When I woke up I was in an ambulance and the man from before was with me. I found out that my back had been on fire and Dally hit me to try and put it out. He also told me that Dally would be OK, he just burnt his arm a bit, but Johnny wasn't doing very well, he had gotten severely burned and a piece of timber had fallen on him and probably broke his back. He kept telling me over and over about how grateful he was that I had saved those kids. When I got to the hospital I sat in the room to wait to hear how Dally and Johnny was, but then Darry, Soda, and Two-Bit came in the door. They were all happy to see me and were telling me how worried they were, but then I saw that Darry was crying and I realised what the others had been trying to say to me. Darry really did love me.

Baloney, baloney, baloney.

I was pretty scared when I woke up in the church that afternoon and saw that Johnny wasn't there, but I was O.K. when I turned over and saw his little message scrawled on the floor. I was pretty excited when Johnny came back with his bags, but I was ecstatic when I pulled out a paperback copy of Gone With The Wind! I began to anxiously search through the bags looking for anything else that could make my day, but then I started to notice the things that he bought. When he told me that we were going to cut our hair I freaked out. There was no way that going to let my tuff hair get cut out for no reason! But after Johnny had explained it very thoroughly to me, I was ready to do it.
We were able to get over our hair (a little), but the thing that was worse than that (only by a tiny bit) was the next five days. Five whole days of doing nothing but reading Gone With The Wind, playing cards, smoking, and eating baloney sandwiches will really take something out of you. On the fifth day while I was sleeping off all of the smoke that I had inhaled I was awoken to find Dally with us! He gave me a letter from Soda, told us about what's going on back home and how the police are off to Texas looking for us, and then he took us to Dairy Queen where we gorged on burgers and banana splits.

The worst night EVER!

I'm so tired. We just got to the church after a terrible terribe night. Me and Johnny were in the park resting after having run away from Derry when these Socs that we've seen earlier in the night come up to us and started yelling at us. They were really  drunk, and I can't remember what we were yelling at each other about, but the next thing I knew my head was dunked underwater and I was drowning. Just as I thought that I was going to die and I began to go unconcious, I was pulled back out of the water. When I got up I saw what had happened. Johnny had stabbed and killed the Soc named Bob and he (Johnny) was sitting next to me, scared to death by what he had done. We had to do something, so we ran over to Dally and got his help. He gave us $50, a gun, and advice to take the next train to a little town called Windrixville and stay at this abandoned church and get some food to wait it out a week until he gets there to help us out. We caught the train no problem, and the farmer that we ran into was wery nice and told us exactly where the church was. So, if that isn't the worst night that you've ever heard of, I'd love to hear about it.