Monday, May 7th, 1967.

The Fall of The Great Dallas Winston

I realy find it hard to belive, I mean, just yesterday our gang consisted of seven people, now there is only five of us. I already told you that Johnny died last night, but early this morning, we got a call from Dallas. He told us that he had just robbed a grocery store and that the fuzz was close on his heels. he also told us to come and hide him somewhere.

We met him at the vacant lot. Our whole gang stopped when we saw Dally reach for something under his belt, it was his heater, or, handgun. I remember him telling me, "I've been carrying a heater, don't worry, it's not loaded." That may be a problem, "It's not loaded." Anyway, he took hold of his gun and pointed it at the cops. Even if Dallas's gun was loaded, he wouldn't have had time to pull that trigger; the cops had filledhim full of lead, as it's said. Dallas Winston was dead before he hit the ground.

Now life continues on as normal, except without Johnny Cade and Dallas Winston of course.

END OF JOURNAL

Sunday, May 6th, 1967.

The Horrible Truth

We had beaten the Soc's, that's true. We should be happy, the Brumly Boys' Gang probably is, but our crew couldn't feel worse.

Right after we beat the Soc's in the vacant lot, Dally, who was supposed to be in the hospital, grabed me and told me to come with him to see Johnny in the hospital. I was supposed to be the fastest runner of our whole Greaser gang, but I guess I was pretty tired from have a large Soc sit on me for half an hour. Dallas beat me to the T-Bird he was driving, and we got in. Dally had his foot to the floor the whole way to the hospital, except when a police officer pulled us over for speeding. Dally told the guy that he was taking me to the hospital, which he was, but the cop thought that I was really sick, so he actually escorted us there. We ran into Johnny's room and he was there, still alive. We told him that the Greasers had beaten the Soc's, we thoght that that would have made him feel good,, but it diddn't, instead he just said, "fightin's no good." This was really deep, and I think it will stick with me forever. Then he adressed me, and he said, "Stay golden Ponyboy Curtis, stay golden." I don't know what he meant by that. After that Johnny Cade just died.

I'm in the living room right now and Soda and Steve and Darry and Two-Bit are all just sitting around, probably thinking about what we fight for, it is realy no good.

Saturday, May 5th, 1967.

Soc's: Finally Beaten

We had the rumble. Us Curtis brothers all put on clothes that made us look as tough as possible; tight T-Shirts. Sodapop and Darrel looked great in theirs, but all of my shirts were too big, due to the lack of food. Finally, Steve and Two-Bit showed up, Steve was first, and we were ready to go to the rumble. We all did front flips off the front porch and ran to the vacant lot. When we got there, we met up with Tim Sepherd's gang and the Brumly Boys gang. About ten minutes later, all of the Soc's piled out of their Mustangs and Corvairs and we all just stood there. Somebody asked who was going to start it. Then Darry stepped out of our greasy crowd and said he would take anybody. I was scared for him.

A Soc boy named Paul, I think, stepped up and said that he could take on Darry. Aparently Darry and Paul were on the same football team in high school. They circled around for a bit, then someone yelled, Paul threw the first punch.

It was on, I was running through the madness looking for someone small that I should be able to take. That's when I saw Dally. He was being punched by a rather large Soc. This was the kind of thing that I was here for, I jumped on that Soc's back while Dallas started laying into him real good. I got knoked over and another Soc started kicking my head in. I don't realy remember the rumble after that.

Friday, May 4th, 1967.

A Weary Welcome Home

We're still in the waiting room, Soda, Darry, Two-Bit and I, waiting for the report on Johnny and Dally. Every time we try to go in and see them, the nurse always sends us back to the waiting room. Soda fell asleep in my lap and I think that I fell asleep just sitting there. Then about an hour later, some news reporters and the fuzz came to question us about the murder and the burning of the church and the saving of the kids. They took lots of pictures and Soda just loved that! I think he liked it for the most part because he has never gotten his picture in the news paper before, I don't think he will get it in this time either though because he had nothing to do with the murder. It will probably be me and Johnny, if they can get a picture of the poor guy.

When the reporters and cops left, we were all very exhausted, but we didn't want to leave untill we knew how Johnny and Dally were doing. It didn't help much though, we were asleep on our feet, so the nurse sent us home. When we got home I fell asleep right there in the car and the next thing I knew, I woke up in my own bed the next morning.

I had forgoton how good a bed felt.

Thursday, May 3rd, 1967.

Tragedy in Unexpected Places

When me and Johnny got back from Dairy Queen with Dally, the church was on fire! I jumped out of the Thunderbird with Johnny right behind me. We ran to the church where there was already a crowd of people, mostly kids, one of the few adults at the sceen was screeming that a few little kids were missing, they were probably in the church. Johnnycake and I ran into the burning chruch. A man tried to stop us but he was too fat to fit through the broken window we had to use to get into the church. It was very smokey in there, and the little kids were in the back. Strangly I wasn't scared though because I don't know why. When we found the kids, we opened a window and tossed them out one by one. Once we had goten all the kids out, I leapt out myself, but Johnny, Johnny didn't quite make it.

We're all in the hospital now, me, Johnny, Dally. Dally has a pretty bad burn arm on his arm, but he'll be OK. Johnny on the other hand, he has a broken back from the piece of roof that fell on him, and alot of bad burns. Soda and Darry came to visit us, and Darry is going to take me back home, for good this time.

I realy hope Johnny and Dally are all right.

Wednesday, April 7th, 1967.

I’m an Exile

I haven’t written in a while, things are a little frantic, Johnnycake and I were in the park by the fountain. The blue Mustang circled the park a few times and then the Socs got out and threatened to ‘give me a bath’. Johnny was so scared. One Soc named David, pushed me into the fountain and held me under, I passed out.
When I regained consciousness, Johnnycake told me that the Socs were drowning me and the only way to get them to stop was to take the blade to Bob. Now Bob is dead and I’m alive, I’m not sure what to think. All we knew what to do is to go up to Dally, ask him for some stuff, and leave town.

Dally gave us fifty bucks, his leather jacket, a T-Shirt, and a loaded gun. He then told us to take the train up to Windrixville and stay up in the church up on Jay Mountain for a couple of days. And that's where I've been ever since.

Wednesday, May 2nd, 1967

Unexpected Relief

A bit of a surprise this morning, Johnny and I were sleeping in the church, we have been reading Gone with the Wind a lot and Johnny loves it. I don’t think he has ever actually sat down and read a book before. I love to watch the sun set, and occasionally the sunrise. Anyway, I was awakened by an unexpected face this morning, and it helped to ease the pain of loneliness, it was Dally. I think he was just as surprised to see me as I was to see him; he had grown a huge brown beard and carried a heater! He hadn’t heard that we had cut our hair and I had died mine. He gave me a letter to read from Sodapop, He misses us and is wondering where we are staying, the cops think that Johnny and I have fled to Texas, a little false tip off from Dally helped. Dally took us out to lunch at Dairy Queen in his pal’s Ford Thunderbird. We ate until we thought we would burst.

Then came the unexpected news, Dally told us that Cherry Valance is now acting as an agent for us! Dally says that she just showed up in he little Stingray and told the gang that she would get them some information on the Socs! This was just downright amazing, especially because Bob was Cherry’s guy, and Johnny killed him! More unexpected news, Johnny just told us that he is going to turn himself in! He says that there is no point in me being separated from my family for the rest of my life, and that a year in jail is better than a lifetime in a cold, lonely church. Dally and I weren’t sure what to think.

I’m sitting on the steps listening to the animal life down in the valley and watching the sunset, Johnny is out hear with me, but he’s reading Gone with the Wind.

The sun just went down and it’s beginning to get cold. Goodnight.