That Was Then, This Is Now by S. E. Hinton

Author:S. E. Hinton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2012-04-03T04:00:00+00:00

7

I went with Cathy to break the news about M&M to her parents and to explain why we were so late. Her father was sitting up waiting for us, and when I saw his face I was glad that I had a real good excuse, even though I was quite a bit bigger than him. Her mother got up and came into the front room in her housecoat. She got real upset when we told her what had happened, but her father said, “He’ll be home tomorrow—that kid’s been going through this stage for months now.”

“It’s not just a stage!” Cathy cried. “You can’t say, ‘This is just a stage,’ when it’s important to people what they’re feeling. Maybe he will outgrow it someday, but right now it’s important. If he never comes home it’ll be your fault—always picking on him about silly, goofy things like his hair and flunking gym!” She sat down and began to cry again. Her father just looked at her and said, “Honey, I know it’s because you’re worried that you’re talking like this. M&M’ll be home tomorrow. He’s a sensible kid.”

“Then why didn’t you ever tell him so?” Cathy sobbed irrationally. “I don’t think he’s coming home tomorrow. He doesn’t do things on the spur of the moment; he thinks things out. He’s not going to come home!”

By now two or three younger kids had wandered in, dressed in their underwear or not dressed at all. They got enough out of the conversation to gather that M&M was gone and they began crying too. It was a big mess and I felt really uncomfortable. Mark was waiting out in the car, and, as it was two in morning and I had to go to school in a few hours, I wanted to leave; only I just didn’t want to leave Cathy. I wished I could take her home with me. Her father said, “Bryon, thank you for your help. I think you’d better be going home, your mother is probably worried.”

I could have told him that Mom never worried about Mark and me—she loved us but let us run our own lives—but I only said, “Yes, sir.” I suddenly noticed that where he wasn’t bald his hair was charcoal-colored too and that his eyes, though smaller with age, were the same as Cathy’s and M&M’s. I wondered if it was strange, seeing your eyes in someone else’s face. I was tired and thinking funny.

“Everyone uptight?” asked Mark when I got back into the car.

“Yep,” I said. “I don’t blame them.”

“They don’t have nothin’ to worry about,” Mark said. “Half the kids on the Ribbon are living in someone else’s car or house or garage. Shoot, I remember last summer, you and me sometimes didn’t come home for weeks—we were bumming around the lake or somebody’s house. Remember when Williamson rented that apartment for a couple of months with two other guys? I bet half the kids in town stopped there overnight.”

“Yeah, but M&M is just a kid.

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