Little Moments

A Day In The Life

"Ponyboy if you aren't out here in five minutes you ain't gonna have time for breakfast 'fore you gotta go to school!" The eldest Curtis hollered to his youngest brother as he made his way through the kitchen. The current state of the kitchen was a whole different story. This right here is what happens when Soda has free rein over breakfast; it looks like a bomb went off. Not the slightest bit surprised by any of it Darry shook his head briefly, closing drawers and cabinets, all of which hung open for no reason, as he passed by. It was a daily occurrence, it seemed, no matter how many times he closed them they were always left open the next time he walked into the room.

"Hey Little Buddy, you need to ravage the whole kitchen to make breakfast?" His question was met with a goofy grin and a shrug from the teen who had a mouth full of food.

"Mornin'," Came the gruff sounding still half-asleep voice of the youngest Curtis as he finally emerged from his bedroom. Looks were pretty important to the fourteen-year-old, although he'd never admit it. Greasers didn't care; they were supposed to look tuff. Pony's mornings consisted of quite a bit of time making sure his hair was slicked back and looked just right. It took a lot of work to pull off thrown together and uncaring.

Grabbing his keys off the counter, Darry headed for the door. "Hey!" The voice stopped him before he could take another step, "Aren't you gonna eat?"

Without a word, he leaned over and grabbed a piece of toast off the table. "Gotta run, I want that mess cleaned up, ya hear?" Unenthusiastic agreements met his ears from both teenagers and once more he headed for the door.

It was late summer and still humid as hell out, not ideal weather to work in, but a job was a job. It paid the bills and kept them fed, he'd take it. Overly ambitious as always Darry agreed to a double shift today. That dull ache set in his muscles, he was exhausted both mentally and physically. There just wasn't time to dwell on that when work needed to be done. One more day, he reminded himself, and he would finally have a day off. It was the drive he needed to get through the day, working twice as hard as one should for what he got paid.

By the time his beat-up old pickup pulled into the driveway, it was well past dark. No ruckus could be heard as he stepped up on the porch, which only meant the boys had gone to terrorize someplace else. It was Friday night after all and Soda mentioned something about going to the drive-in with Steve. The television was on playing some old movie, and slumped over on the couch was Ponyboy, a textbook in his lap. The kid had gotten into a mighty bad habit of staying up late over the summer, falling back into his school schedule wasn't so easy. Adding in track practice surely only wore him out that much more.
Darry took his book and laid it on the coffee table, the younger boy didn't even move a muscle. A deck of cards and empty glasses littered the kitchen table. Knowing Soda whatever game they'd been playing ended once Steve figured out he was cheating again. The dishes were done and the mess from this morning was cleaned up. There was no telling what kind of mess came about from dinner, so long as it got cleaned up there was no worry. Everyone was pretty good about pitching in, which took a lot of stress off of him.

There was a quiet that set over the house. It was very unusual but welcomed nonetheless. No chatter about school and gossip, hollering about the day's events, or commotion from someone horsing around. For once the only sounds that could be heard in the Curtis house were the dull voice of the television, and the gentle thud of cabinets being closed once again.