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Cathy can’t stay at home. But she cannot leave her siblings there either. She’d essentially abandoned them once, going to boarding school and all. M&M in his more thoughtful state would say she didn’t abandon them and she’s not responsible for his fate but she is not sure if she believes him.
There’s not much to do in Tulsa. Most especially with two children in tow. M&M, and the two youngest opted to stay home. Which was for the best. At least Jilly and Sarah could use the bathroom on their own. The same couldn’t be said for the youngest of her siblings.
“We watch them run?” Jilly sighs, leaning back against the bleachers. It’s overcast today, so being outside isn’t so bad.
Cathy shrugs. She doesn’t have the heart or money to entertain herself or her siblings. Whatever sporting event that is going on at her school will have to be enough.
It’s what her parents did for her.
“I can run,” Sarah announces and pops up off her seat.
Cathy is quick to pull her back down. “You have to be registered to run.”
It’s both true and the sort of logic that will work on a six year old.
There’s a loud eruption of applause a section away from them as the current race ends. Several boys stand up, hollering and clapping.
“That’s right, Ponyboy!” One of the taller ones yells.
She squints towards the track and it’s not hard to find him at all. Ponyboy winces at the attention and waves off the yeller.
Sarah gasps, and tugs on the sleeve of Cathy’s blouse, “There’s a pony?”
“It’s a name,” Jilly lets out an exaggerated sigh as though she is 30 instead of all of 11 years old. “His name is Ponyboy.” She pauses and then adds, “Curtis.”
Cathy quirks an eyebrow up at her sister, “How do you know Ponyboy Curtis?”
Now that exasperation is directed at her instead, “He saved a bunch of kids from a fire last year?” This was not a story that had made it to her check ins with her family. It was hard to get any cohesive news from her phone calls with her family while she had been away. Two adults and five children, well four as Davey wasn’t talking yet, speaking all at once was a lot to sort through when you were only allowed fifteen minutes of phone time. “It was a whole thing, Cathleen.”
She lets the full name of it all slide, “A whole thing, huh?”
“It was when he was on the run for murder.” Jilly’s lip quirks at this, and now she doesn’t know if her sister is just messing with her. “Do you not read any newspapers?”
“”They don’t have Tulsa newspapers outside of Tulsa,” nothing makes Cathy more defensive than her younger siblings knowing more than her. Except maybe M&M, but he doesn’t use what he knows against her like the others do. “Stop being funny.”
“It was self defense,” Jilly adds, before leaning back on the bleachers. “Do they not talk about this at your school?”
“Do you talk about this in your school?” Cathy asks her. She’s not sure if she should be concerned about what sixth graders talked about in school if this was something her sister knew about.
Then again her parents didn’t seem very concerned.
Or they did but all their focus was on that one child.
“How can your school not talk about it?” Jilly responds.
Cathy reaches over and flicks Jilly on the ear, causing her sister to yelp. “Don’t be such a gossip, Jillian.”
Sarah sighs, and leans against Cathy. “Can we go see ponies?”
“We don’t know anyone with a stable,” Cathy points out.
“There’s ponies at the fair,” Sarah comes back with. She is not going to let this go.
Jilly flicks Cathy back. “Don’t be a bully.”
Cathy rolls her eyes at that, and then to Sarah, “The fair isn’t in town, Sar.”
Sarah lets out an exaggerated sigh. Trust her, if the fair was in town it would have ranked over high school track meets.
“She could meet Ponyboy,” Jilly offers. “He just won. You want to go congratulate him, Sarah bean?”
“He’s not a pony,” Sarah points out. “I don’t want to meet a boy.”
Cathy lets out a sigh of relief. There’s nothing wrong with Ponyboy, and she has no reason to think he would be anything but polite to her sisters. She just felt awkward with anyone remotely in Bryon’s circle of friends. Even if Pony was more Mark’s friend than Bryon’s. Maybe that made it worse. Maybe he also blamed her for Mark’s prison sentence.
She’d rather not think about who blames her for what at this time.
“Give it a few years,” Jilly sighs.
“Give you a few years,” Cathy tells her and Jilly instinctively covers her ears. She wasn’t going to flick her again. “Is this over?”
Jilly stands up and looks over at the track. “They’re not running anymore.”
Well a short distraction.
“We should get home and start dinner,” Cathy tells her. Jilly is on salad duty, Cathy is on pasta and sauce duty. Sarah is on stay out of trouble duty along with the other two youngest.
“We could get pizza,” Jilly offers, helping Sarah get back up.
“With what money?”
“You work,” Jilly points out.
Cathy ignores that and takes Sarah’s hand from her. “No pizza.”
“But-“ Jilly doesn’t have an argument and so she doesn’t continue with any words following.
They’ve made it to the bottom of the bleachers. There’s not a lot of people milling about. And still Sarah manages to barrel into someone.
“Sorry!” The person she barreled into, turns around. It would of course be, “Pony!”
Pony looks a little startled that this small child recognizes him. “It’s okay?” Then he glances behind her little sister. “Oh hey, Cathy.”
It’s a friendly greeting at least. “Hi Ponyboy. Sorry about the bulldozer.”
“It’s nothing,” he says, looking at the three of them. Jilly is suddenly silent, as if starstruck. “Your sisters?”
“Jilly and Sarah,” Cathy nods.
Jilly comes back to life, holding her hand out. “Jillian.”
Pony reaches over and shakes her hand. “Nice to meet you?” He sounds unsure this entire exchange.
Cathy too.
“Giddyup, Curtis!” Someone calls over.
Pony flushes pink. “I, uh, should get going. See you later, Cathy.”
“You too,” she says and he runs off.
Jilly taps her shoulder against hers. “He’s-“
“Let’s get home,” Cathy responds before her sister can say something ridiculous. “Sarah please watch where you’re going.”
“Where am I going?” her sister asks.
“Home,” Cathy reminds her. And then thinks better of it and leans down to pick Sarah up.
Otherwise it’s going to be a very long walk home.