Chapter 12

THE HEARING WASN'T anything like I thought it would be. Besides Darry and Soda and me,

nobody

was there except Randy and his parents and Cherry Valance and her parents and a couple of

the other guys

that had jumped Johnny and me that night. I don't know what I expected the whole thing to be

like--- I

guess I've been watching too many Perry Mason shows.

Chapter 11

I HAD TO STAY IN BED a whole week after that. That bugged me; I'm not the kind that can lie

around

looking at the ceiling all the time. I read most of the time, and drew pictures. One day I started

flipping

through one of Soda's old yearbooks and came across a picture that seemed vaguely familiar.

Not even

when I read the name Robert Sheldon did it hit me who it was. And then I finally realized it was

Bob.

Chapter 10

I WALKED DOWN THE hall in a daze. Dally had taken the car and I started the long walk home

in a

stupor. Johnny was dead. But he wasn't. That still body back in the hospital wasn't Johnny.

Johnny was

somewhere else--- maybe asleep in the lot, or playing the pinball machine in the bowling alley,

or sitting on

the back steps of the church in Windrixville.

Chapter 9

IT WAS ALMOST six-thirty when I got home. The rumble was set for seven, so I was late for

supper, as

usual. I always come in late. I forget what time it is. Darry had cooked dinner: baked chicken

and potatoes

and corn--- two chickens because all three of us eat like horses. Especially Darry. But although I

love

baked chicken, I could hardly swallow any. I swallowed five aspirins, though, when Darry and

Soda

weren't looking.

Chapter 8

THE NURSES WOULDN'T let us see Johnny. He was in critical condition. No visitors. But

Two-Bit

wouldn't take no for an answer. That was his buddy in there and he aimed to see him. We both

begged and

pleaded, but we were getting nowhere until the doctor found out what was going on.

"Let them go in," he said to the nurse. "He's been asking for them. It can't hurt now.

Chapter 7

NOW THERE WERE three of us sitting in the waiting room waiting to hear how Dally and

Johnny were.

Then the reporters and the police came. They asked too many questions too fast, and got me

mixed up. If

you want to know the truth, I wasn't feeling real good in the first place. Kind of sick, really. And

I'm scared

of policemen anyway. The reporters fired one question right after another at me and got me so

confused I

didn't know what was coming off.

Chapter 6

JOHNNY GAGGED AND I almost dropped my hot fudge sundae. "Cherry?" we both said at the

same

time. "The Soc?"

"Yeah," Dally said. "She came over to the vacant lot the night Two-Bit was jumped. Shepard and

some of

his outfit and us were hanging around there when she drives up in her little ol' Sting Ray. That

took a lot of

nerve.

Chapter 5

I WOKE UP LATE IN the afternoon. For a second I didn't know where I was. You know how it is,

when

you wake up in a strange place and wonder where in the world you are, until memory comes

rushing over

you like a wave. I half convinced myself that I had dreamed everything that had happened the

night before.

I'm really home in bed, I thought. It's late and both Darry and Sodapop are up. Darry's cooking

breakfast,