Disclaimer: I don't own The Outsiders.

"Darrel? Sweetheart?" Lord, but that man is hard to wake. Even when the boys were tiny, no amount of noise would get him to stir. I guess he needs to recharge all the energy he uses in the day, ready to be up and running at the world again. I'm happier to take things more steady, but maybe that's why I don't sleep so deeply and I use the night to think about things.

Darrel Junior likes to think things through too. I thought maybe all our children would be like me in that way. Soda sure changed that opinion – that boy was a live wire like his daddy from the get go. I can remember him standing in his crib, calling for us, just as soon as he could talk. Not bawling or yelling, but calling, wanting company, "MommyDaddyDarry!" Like it was all one word.

That's how Darry got his nickname, because Soda couldn't quite say 'Darrel'. I guess we just fell into it too and by the time Ponyboy came along, it had stuck.

Ponyboy, my baby. I can't believe he's a teenager already. Soon I'll have three young men, not boys at all. Twenty good years and a real good family. I'd like to go back and rub a few people's noses in that and that's a fact.

Plenty of people looked sideways at me and Darrel when we got married. Said it wouldn't last. Maybe we were young and maybe it was rushed because Darry was on the way, but that boy was born out of love, they all were. We would have gotten married anyway, when Darrel got discharged from the army, it just happened a little sooner, is all.

"Darrel?" He still doesn't hear me. He doesn't look worried when he's asleep. He looks so young, no wonder people think he and Darry are brothers, sometimes. I know it bothers him that we've had it rough lately. It wasn't his fault that he broke his leg so bad, coming off that roof. He hates that he was off work so long and that he hasn't been able to get back into it the same. Not affording Darry's college fees near enough killed him with shame.

I'm just as proud of Darry as if we had been able to send him to college. He works as hard as his father and he's got a plan. A year of saving hard and he'll make it, he'll be a college man yet.

I don't know about Soda, I think maybe college won't be for him. I sure have seen a lot of mixed messages on his report cards. Never had a teacher say he wasn't a pleasure to have in class, though, which counts for a lot in my opinion. He's one of life's good guys, my Sodapop.

We have to get the money together for Ponyboy to get to college, that's for sure, I never saw a kid like books so much. Darry did good in school, real good, but Pony'll beat him yet, I think. He doesn't know it, but he'll be as handsome as Soda too, when he's done a bit more growing.

Sometimes I think I could about burst with how much I love those boys.

"Ma'am? Can you hear me, ma'am?"

Darrel needs to wake up now and tell that policeman to stop shouting. He should see the lights flashing too, it's kind of pretty in all this rain.

"Frank? Is the driver breathing? Jesus Christ, where's that ambulance?"

He's really cussing a blue streak now, that policeman, something's got him riled up. If I wasn't so tired I'd tell him to mind his language. Didn't realise I was so tired. And cold. Why is it so cold?

That sounds like an ambulance now, coming real close. Even that's not waking Darrel up. I need to tell him to wake up, we really should get home now...back to the boys...

"MA'AM, stay with me, ma'am!"

Oh, my boys, my beautiful boys.