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Darry believed he truly was the best big brother ever. Momma and Daddy had always told him he was super helpful when it came to dealing with his two younger brothers.
Speaking of his younger brothers, three of the boys huddled around the apple tree outside of their small house. Soda had declared the old bark as their secret hideout and area to scout out everything around the neighborhood.
Darry and Soda carefully made their way up the tree, being careful of snapping any branches and falling.
Ponyboy watched from below, making fussy sounds as if he was trying to tell them to carry him up there.
“No Pony!” Soda yelled down as he sat on a branch, “You’re too young to be up here. Mama would get very mad.” Pony cried out and kicked a fallen apple. Darry glanced down and had an idea. “Maybe we could bring him up here, but we have to be on the lookout for Mom.” Soda thought for a good moment before nodding along. “I’ll watch!”
Darry used all his strength to get his baby brother up here without falling. They cheered in victory as Pony finally made it up to the branch, and together they all started to point out random things around the neighborhood. “Oh! Oh! There’s Stevie and Ace!” Soda pointed at a backyard a little farther down near the corner of the street. The two siblings were playing around with some old wooden sticks and appeared to be having a sword fight. “Do you think they can see us from here?” Before Darry could answer his question, Soda started yelling at the top of his lungs to try and make his best friend hear him, but it didn’t work because they were too far. Shocking the hyperactive 4-year-old couldn’t yell loud enough.
Apparently the yelling was enough to catch Mama's attention, and before they could even react, Mom was outside yelling at the boys to get down. They all protested but slowly made their way down the branches.
“What have I told y’all about climbing the tree?” Their mother scolded as she brushed off bark that had clung onto Pony’s onesie.
“Not to do it without you or Daddy outside to watch us. And to never bring Pony up there with us . . .”
The two older boys said, somewhat at the same time, if it wasn’t for Soda stuttering and forgetting the last part, only to repeat it after Darry right after.
Jamie Curtis let out a soft laugh at her boys' antics and began leading them inside.
“I want both of y’all to go wash up. Dinner is almost ready, and please just try to stay out of trouble.”
______
After dinner the boys all gathered into Pony and Soda's shared room. Pony was jumping in his crib and babbling nonsense as he watched his two brothers. Soda was a farmer trying to keep the evil horse bandit, aka Darry, from taking his horse from his stable.
“Back away from my horsie, you evil man!” The blonde boy lifted up a toy gun at Darry and tried to speak with a thick Southern accent like the cowboys in his TV shows.
“That horse would give me a mighty coin! I’ll get him one day just you wait.” The two circled around one another until Darry made the first move and leaped to grab Pony. Soda squealed and tried to tackle him down but the older boy was too fast and carried Pony out of his crib and ran out the door
“Hey, give him back!” Soda was right on his tail. They scuffled around the corners of the house until Darry accidentally slipped on one of Pony’s toy trucks and tumbled down with his baby brother in his arms.
Soda skidded to a stop and stared in horror as Pony’s lips trembled. “Oh dang—no no no, horsie, shhh, it’s okay, there, there.”
He patted Pony, and Darry tried to bounce him on his knee, but the baby wailed nonetheless. Darrel Sr. walked into the room with a tired look. “Boys, what’s going on?”
The boys looked around anxiously before Soda blurted out, “Pony was flying and bonked his head on the ceiling! Thank goodness Darry managed to catch him before he fell and all his brain splattered everywhere!”
Darrel laughed at his middle child’s imagination and slowly made his way over to the boys. “You watch too many of Mom’s horror movies, kiddo.”
He took the sobbing Pony out of Darry’s hands and walked down the hall to their room. “This little one needs a nap. Ain’t that right, Pone?”
Pony babbled in response and nuzzled into Darrel’s shoulder. The oldest kids were left in the living room to get into a little more mischief before Momma dragged them into the shower by the ears.
——————
Nighttime soon came, and the brothers were all huddled together in the cramped bathroom trying to do separate things. Darry had a strict routine of brushing his teeth before his shower because it made him feel gross if he didn’t. Soda was getting fussy and practically bouncing while waiting for his mom to give him the go-ahead to jump into the bubble bath. Pony was in Mom’s arms as she sat on the closed toilet, bouncing him up and down as she waited for Darry to finish.
“Soda, if you brushed your teeth with Darry, you wouldn’t be having to wait for him, and you wouldn’t have to brush your teeth right after and would have more time to play.”
Their mother gently set Pony down and turned off the faucet so the room didn’t overflow with bubbles and water.
“Yaaa, but like, it’ll ruin MY very special routine.”
Soda declared while putting his hand to his chest. Darry spat out his toothpaste and looked at him with a confused expression.
“You have a routine?”
“Uh, yeah!” Soda rolled his eyes as if this was common knowledge. “It’s take a shower, be forced to brush my teeth, and stay up as long as possible! If I brush my teeth before, it’ll ruin it!”
Jamie let out a soft laugh and gave the go-ahead for Soda to jump into the bath. Because they couldn’t afford to take 5 baths all day, the boys shared the tub. Soda and Pony splashed around and were having a full-on war while Darry complained loudly about how it was getting in his eye.
Soon the sunset began to peek out from the foggy window above the tub, and Jamie got all three of her boys dried and dressed in their pajamas.
She handed off Darry to Darrell and swiftly got her youngest boys into their rooms. Pony instantly knocked out as his head hit the soft pillow, but Soda was the opposite.
“Mama, why do we have to sleep?”
“because if you don’t sleep you’ll be cranky in the morning.”
She pulled the covers, which had horses plastered all over them, onto soda and kissed his forehead gently
“But today in daycare we learned about noc… nocurrrnal animals. Maybe i’m nocurnal!”
“Nocturnal, baby,” she corrected, “and humans aren’t nocturnal. especially little boys named Sodapop.”
Soda giggled as she poked his ribs and kissed him one last time
“Goodnight, Mama.”
“Good night, Soda... don’t sneak out of your room again.”
She glared at him jokingly and gently closed the door behind her. With a soft sigh she made her way towards her eldest son’s room.
She knocked three times before opening the door. “Are you awake, hun?”
“Yeah,” came darry’s soft voice.
She walked over to him and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead. “Goodnight, sweetheart.”
“Night, Mama.”
And as she closed the door, quiet filled the house.
The Curtis family may not have been the richest folk, or the cleanest, but they were a family. together forever. Nothing is going to change those sweet memories.