Shortly after Pony told us about the hospital, Dally called. He had just robbed a store and the fuzz were after him. He told us to meet him in the vacant lot. We all rushed to meet him. When we arrived, he was already there, with the fuzz close on his heels. He stopped under a streetlight, took out the unloaded gun, and raised it towards the police. They opened fire, and Dally crumpled to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Ponyboy fainted at the sight.
October 7, 1956 2:47 PM
I did some research on Johnny's last words: 'Stay gold'. As it turns out, it's a reference to a poem by Robert Frost. I was never into poetry, but I'll repeat it here:
Nature's first green is gold,
Her heart is hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower,
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day,
Nothing gold can stay.
I had absolutely no idea what it meant, so I asked Ponyboy about it. He didn't know what he meant either, except for the connection to the poem. I didn't get it. Johnny was smart. He wouldn't have told Pony that if he didn't know what it meant. If only that piece of wood hadn't fallen on his back. I wish he was still with us. Dally, too.
When I asked Pony about the poem, I also gave him the copy of Gone with the Wind. I knew that Johnny wanted him to have it. Ponyboy told me that he couldn't continue reading it, because it would remind him too much of the deaths of Johnny and Dally. So I kept it. Who knows, I might want to read it later.
No comments:
Post a Comment