Chapter 5 - Hiding From The Truth

I woke up and was afraid. I've never been so far from home, especially without Sodapop or Darry. I started to think about them - about what I would usually do on a Saturday. Soda would be drinking a glass of chocolate milk and Darry would be sipping coffee and reading the newspaper. I'd jump on Soda and we'd get into a fight; all for fun of course. We'd go outside after a slice of chocolate cake each and play a game of football... I zoned back into reality as Johnny returned with supplies. He then posed the statement. The statement we had been delaying though we knew would be something we'd have to face. "We're gonna cut our hair," Johnny said. I was appaled. "No! Not my hair!" I yelled so that it echoed throughout the hilly mountainside. My hair was my pride and joy... The key word now being WAS. For the remainder of our stay at the church we wasted time by smoking and reading 'Gone With The Wind'. I was almost up to a pack a day. I paid the price though and had a horrible stomach ache part way through the week. Man, there was one sunset that was really good. The mist was all gold and silver. I also told Johnny about the poem, I've probably talked about it in a post before. I don't think he'd ever heard a poem before. Johnny was really into 'Gone With The Wind'. He loved how the characters were so brave and had so many adventures. I think it reminded him of what he wanted to be. This couldn't happen now though. He would be labelled as a bad person forever now. All because of last night...

The first day of the second week Dally arrived. I'd never been so happy to see the son of a gun. He brought a letter from Sodapop. That page of writing didn't seem like just words and punctuation (well, limited punctuation at that because Soda was so bad with conventions) but it seemed like Soda sending me love. Even in this grave situation he managed to light up the scene. For the first time in what seemed like forever, we walked out of the church into the looming sun. Dally brought us in Buck's car to Dairy Queen. I chugged a Pepsi and dug into a barbeque sandwich. It was so good compared to bologna. Oh ya, I forgot to mention it? All Johnny brought for food was a couple of chocolate bars and bologna. Bologna.... Dally also told us the Cherry was spying for us. I've had enough of her pity. She's got everything and complains about her stupid little problems. Why is it so hard for us greasers?