For the next few days, Ponyboy and I took turns reading Gone With The Wind. It was a pretty good book. I should have went to see the movie with Johnny and Pony. And it passed a lot of time. I finally got used to our hair, even though I still hated mine. It was the same blond hair of many of Two-Bit's girlfriends. At least it's a little longer than I thought they would cut it. It was a few inches longer than my shoulders. But like I said, I still hated it. One day I woke up and saw Ponyboy walk outside. He went to smoke a cigarette. I followed along and started smoking too. It was before dawn and still dark. It was also cold. I knew what he came out here for. It wasn't to smoke a cigarette. It was a tradition we had. Every morning we didn't have school, Ponyboy and I would go out before dawn. We would wait for the sun to rise. Sometimes Sodapop tagged along too. I had almost forgotten. Johnny came out about a minute after we had. Just in time. The sun was rising. It was especially pretty on top of a moutain. Johnny must have thought so too. "Golly, that sure was pretty. The mist is what was really pretty. All gold and silver. To bad it can't stay like that all the time." "Nothing gold can stay.", Ponyboy said. "What?", Johnny asked. "Nature's first green is gold. Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower. But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief. So dawn goes down today. Nothing gold can stay.", Pony recited. "Where did you learn that? That's what I meant." "Robert Frost wrote it. I always remembered it because I didn't know what he meant by it.", Pony explained. "You know", Johnny said, looking around, "I never noticed clouds and colors and stuff 'til you kept reminding me. It's like they didn't even exist in my world." "Well, I can't tell the rest of the gang stuff like that. Just you two and Sodapop.", Pony said. I smiled. "Maybe were different.", Johnny said. "Shoot kid, maybe they are", Pony said laughing. I had to laugh too. We all burst into a fit of happy laughter. Not too loud, we didn't want anyone to know we were here. But loud enough to make me the most happy i've been in a long time. That night there was no laughter. We weren't even close to being the slightest bit happy. Johnny kept talking about how Two-Bit should have been in that little store. He could have swiped everything. Then Ponyboy started talking about how a few days we watched a movie with Dally. "Just a few days ago ol' Two-Bit was wisecracking when we were hanging out with Cherry and Marcia. Just a few days ago.." But Johnny cut him off. "Will you shut up about a few days ago? I killed a kid a few days ago. He couldn't have been older than seventeen or eighteen and I killed him!" He stopped for a moment, tears sliding down his face and onto his jacket. Pony and I started crying to. It hurt to remember. "I didn't mean to. They were drowning you. They knocked Carli out. There sure is a lot of blood in people." Now there were oceans of tears streaming down our cheeks. We couldn't stop them from coming. "You know", Johnny continued, "This is my fault for bringing two thirteen year olds along with me. You know you two oughta get home. I mean you guys didn't kill him." "No! We're fourteen and we've been fourteen for a month.", Pony yelled. By now our faces were dark red and soked. "I..I didn't mean it like that. Come on don't cry.", Johnny said real gently. But we couldn't stop. Neither could he. We kept crying and crying. I hadn't cried this much since Mom and Dad died. Soda, Pony, and I broke down crying. Darry just had this awful sad and helpless look on his face. We all cried ourselves to sleep. The next morning, I woke up to someone puling on my hair. "Hey blondie, heh heh, wake up. Hey Johnny, Pony wake up." I knew that voice. Who was it? When I sat up I knew. It was Dally! I never thought i'd be so happy to see him. I felt like running up and hugging him. But I didn't. We started shooting questions at him. "Are the fuzz after us? Do the boys know were here? How's Darry and Soda? Is it safe to leave?" "Hey hey hey, slow down one thing at a time. Are you hungry? I'm starving man." "You're starving?", Johnny asked. I remembered the baloney and almost got sick. I hate baloney. "Hey I got a letter for Ponyboy and Carli Curtis." "A letter? From who?", Pony asked. Who would send us a letter? Nobody knew where we were. "The President of The United States. It's from your brother, Soda." "Soda? But how did he..did you tell..?", I asked, my mouth nearly touching the ground. "I told him I didn't know where you were, but he didn't believe me. He wanted me to give you guys that." I leaned over Ponyboy's shoulder and read the letter. "Ponyboy and Carli, I guess you guys got into some trouble, huh? We went crazy when you ran out. Then you two and Johnny went missing. Darry is awful sorry he pushed you, Pony. You know he din't mean it. Dally got hauled in the station. We were all scared something awful. I wish you guys would turn yourselves in. But I guess Johnny could get hurt if you do. We miss you. Darry is taking this awful hard. You know he loves you guys. Take care. Say hi to Johnny for us. Sodapop Curtis." I felt a tear trickle down my face. I blinked the rest back. It hurt to have them worry so much about us. "Why did you get hauled in?", Pony asked. "Them boys down at that station know me by now. While I was there I kinda let it slip that you guys were heading to Texas. So that's where they went. Texas man, Texas. Look at these two and thier hair man. Blondie, heh heh." I'm glad he thought it was funny. My face was red and I gave Dally such a look, I think it through him off guard. He just doesn't expect that from me. Or Johnny. "Come on let's go get something to eat man, i'm starving.", Dally said. "Ya let's go."