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.