Outsiders Epilogue
See more related to this at: wordenhome.neocities.org/rd/sp/outepi.html

	I just wish people would get their act together and stop fighting. They're fighting so much! I'm not even taking sides and they're pulling me apart! This whole Greaser vs. Soc thing has driven me mad. And that's why I'm leaving it behind...

	This is the last entry in my personal journal from those times. Those times after those kids took my best friend, those times when we jumped Greasers for joy, those times when I was hiding in cars crying, being torn apart by it all. Those times when two sides sick of fighting thought that one big fight would change everything for them. It never did.
	I saw myself as lucky at the time. I had said about fighting, "I'm sick if it because it doesn't do any good." I believed that (and still do), so I hid. (the wrong thing to do) After Bob, my best friend, was killed, I ran away and hid anywhere I could to escape the division. I didn't have to worry about getting into fights or being insulted. I could just live on my own in peace. I didn't care anymore! I didn't care about people, their fighting, what cars they had or clothes they wore, when people were killed in fights... i just didn't care. I never noticed. Of course, it eventually ended and I had to go back to living with people. But hiding on my own I forgot what people are. I just saw cold-blooded murder machines. Even if they had stopped fighting in the decade I was gone, I still hated them just as much as I had before. So I still regret hiding like that.
	It doesn't matter much anymore, though, because one day while I was gone they just stopped fighting. It's a pretty boring ending, actually. They just grew up, and one-by-one everyone found a job or a girl somewhere and they left. That's all. Almost nobody even remembers a Greaser/Social division anymore. It may as well never have happened. I'm trying to bring attention to it again, because if we forget that piece of history it's bound to be repeated, but I am glad that it's not a problem anymore. I can go around in peace without half the city being scared of me and thinking I'm some evil thing out to get them.
	About Bob: the guy who killed him... I cannot speak his name ever again. I'll put my old journal entry in here so I don't have to write it again: "Johnny Cade, I'm sorry, I hate you enough to kill even if I know it wasn't your fault." I know exactly what happened on that day. That kid killed Bob in self-defense before Bob killed him. He and his friend (who I'll talk about soon) later jumped into a burning church and saved some kids inside, and the kid who shall not be named ultimately died from that act. I did still feel bad about him dying, even if he did kill my friend. He was a good guy. That's all I really know about him. I never got to know him; I just know he was a good guy, partly because I got to know his friend.
	He and his friend made Bob mad by stealing our girlfriends. Bob took Cherry, I took Marcia. I don't really know where they've gone, but I've heard a bit about them from the book-writer, and he tells me that they've both married someone and they're living happily in a big city somewhere. Some people are surprised that Cherry and Pony didn't really hold any romantic relationship with each other, but I knew that the events of that horrible week when Bob died wouldn't let them stay together. Pony could hardly remember her after his concussion anyway.
	Ponyboy, Bob's killer's friend - I'm so close to forgetting his name forever. I don't know why because I still talk to him quite a bit. He got a bad concussion from one of those big rumbles that was supposed to change everything, and he's never recovered from it. He's quite clumsy and he has a hard time thinking straight. He was doing very badly in his writing class after that and had to write a good final paper to pass. He ended up writing a complete book titled "The Outsiders", which has become really popular. People say it helps them connect to someone who is going through the same hard things they are. I've never understood that. Well, actually, I did at one point. I used to feel "mixed up in all this," but Pony called me out on that one day. I never was mixed up in anything; I was just a coward! So I don't know how people can connect their circumstances with others' circumstances that are much different and much worse, like I tried to do, but I'm glad they do because it made Pony's book popular, which is a good thing for him and everyone he knows.
	I don't think I write like Pony does, even if he disagrees. He told me once, "I don't write fine. I write lousy. I got a lousy vocabulary, really. You were educated, too, with no concussion, and you could prob'ly write better than me if you tried." Well, I tried, and it still doesn't compare to anything of his. I'm really happy it's that way, though. He's had too much happen to him and he really just needs the life he finally got, where he gets to relax and dispense whatever emotions are left from his childhood into books. He's doing well now off his books, and he gets to stay together with his family. His book make some of us Socials get our act together, too, and we pacified some more Socials along the way. In a way, he single-handedly cured everyone's troubles and made our lives happier.
	Pony's family has remained intact through to the end of the conflict. You've probably read his book if you're reading this, so I'll assume you know everyone. Soda has been doing pretty well. He actually got a really good job as an auto mechanic. I didn't know you could get salaries so high without a full education. With that money, the success from Pony's book, and Pony and Soda being able to take care of themselves, Darry went off and finished college. I don't remember what profession he went into, but I know he's loving it. And about their friends, Two-Bit and Steve... Steve is working with Soda, and Two-Bit never found a job, of course. He's just leeching off whatever care Pony and Soda can manage for him.
	I think I've wrapped up the stories of all the main characters in Pony's book, and I've wrapped up the Greaser/Soc conflict as a whole. That's everything I have to say. Hopefully this epilogue helps prevent some of this from being forgotten. Speaking of being forgotten, I wonder if I've been forgotten? I don't play a prominent role in Pony's life, so I'm mentioned only briefly in the book and my name doesn't come up even once in discussion guides for it. I don't think I'd mind being forgotten. I didn't do much, I was just a coward. But I will provide a warning about that:
	I was a coward. I ran away and hid. When I came back, I wished so strongly that I had never left. I forgot what a person was. I forgot that people have feelings. I forgot that running away and hiding won't change anything. I forgot that it takes some effort to change anything. Had I stayed, I would have remembered all of that. Had I stayed, I could have made some effort to make a change, or at least guided those who were making effort in the right direction, because you can't just put effort into something without thought. If you do that, you get unorganized effort towards many different beliefs of what should change and it ends up making things worse. I'm smart enough to see what needs to be done to organize the effort and make a change, so I wish I had stayed and taken advantage of that ability. Remember this, just in case it comes in handy.
	Remember how Pony was failing his class? I've always had a hard time in English class. Remember, I can't write very well. So one day my English teacher informs me that I'm somewhat close to failing the class, but I can make up for it if I write a great end-of-semester project, just like Pony could. We had read, quite funnily, The Outsiders, and we were doing some sort of project on it. My teacher suggested that I write an epilogue to the book, since I don't think it ends quite right (that's why I've repeated and clarified a bit of the ending) and I know all of the characters in person and what happened to them after the book ended. So I did, and it began with a flashback to a desperate journal entry... no, I don't like that ending either. If I'm getting the wonderful opportunity to end the book then I'll end it right! I will take advantage of my ability to make a change for the better, just like I advised!
	So that's pretty much the end of the story for all the Greasers I ever met. They're all great people, and I'm glad they all got to go off and live great lives. Their stories all wrapped up pretty well, almost like a miracle. It's amazing, and I'm still thinking about how events so drastic could possibly lead to so peaceful a resolution. I'm doing quite well myself, by the way. I've got my own place to live and a well-paying job, and soon I might even have a book to publish thanks to Pony's inspiration. I learned a lot from these events and the thought process that followed. And I will never, ever believe in the saying "All's Well that Ends Well" again, because everything that happened in one horrible week was terrible, and all that division in one city was terrible, even if it did end well. For those who survived, at least.