A/N: My foray into the minefield that is known as Soda goes to Vietnam. ;)

This preface chapter starts off with an adult Ponyboy reflecting on a late night with his brother when he was 8 and Soda, 10. I thought the use of present tense made the chapter more evocative and powerful than it would be using past tense. So, I decided to write Pony's memories in present tense form. Hopefully it is not confusing. If anything is confusing, let me know. Enjoy!

I am eight, my brother Sodapop is ten. I am sitting cross-legged in a corner of our bedroom, walled in by a tower of books that almost reach to the top of my head.

"I can't hardly see you," Soda chuckles. "What are you doin', Ponyboy?"

I'm just about to do battle with thousands of ferocious soldiers and monsters. Soda's pile of dirty socks is the enemy camp, the Lone Ranger gun in my lap is my powerful, magical weapon; and I am a warrior.

"Readin'," I lift my head above the pile of books.

"Oh, there you are!" Soda places his hand on top of his chest and lets out a deep breath. "Phew. You was so quiet; I thought 'em pile of books crashed on you."

I shake my head. "You're crazy, Soda." I make a crazy sign with my finger and roll my eyes up and down. I'm a little bit peeved at my brother. I was just about to battle the toughest warrior in all of the land, when Soda snapped me back to our small one-window bedroom in Tulsa.

"Hey, I ain't the one readin' for fun on a Saturday night," Soda gives me a big grin. Soda teases me all the time, but there is never any hint of cruelty or meanness in his teasing. Usually.

I'm about to go back to my book, when I notice my brother, clad only in his red underwear and white gym socks, yank the sheets and pillows off our beds.

"Whatchya doin', Soda?" Besides making a mess, I think to myself.

"Practicin' my newest acrobatics move," To Soda, it is the most obvious answer in the entire world. "I'm gonna do a backflip off my bed and land on your bed."

I say a silent prayer he doesn't' break his neck.

He looks down at the pillows lying on the floor, "well, that should do it," and rubs his hands together.

"You really gonna do a backflip?" I bite down on my finger. "But, Soda, you ain't never done a back flip in your life."

He shrugs his shoulders. "Nah, but I watched Darry do 'em like a million times."

So have I, but you weren't going to see me doing mid-air backflips off furniture. I valued my head and my neck, and if mom caught me, my backside, too much.

"Don't worry, I got the pillows and them other stuff so if I do fall, I won't wake up mom and dad."

"Ain't you worried about getting hurt?"

Soda looks at me like I swallowed a bug. Out of all of us, Soda is by far the most adventurous. He is the first to climb trees, jump into rivers, and swing on ropes. Even Darry, our fourteen year old brother and the strongest kid I know, hesitates before doing something new for the first time.

Not Soda, he dives in head first. I won't do anything unless both Darry and Soda do it first, and even then, I'll make Soda take the plunge with me.

I think someone must be looking after Soda, because except for a few bruises and scrapes, he's largely escaped from his adventures unscathed.

That doesn't stop me from worrying on his behalf. And so, every time Soda does something particularly dangerous, I'm right behind him, chewing off my finger nail, closing my eyes and saying a prayer.

"Huh? I'm not gonna get hurt, Pony." He gives me his megawatt smile. "Besides," he continues, "with all em books you read, we could train you to be a doctor and you could fix my injuries for free!"

"Ha, ha," I cross my arms in front on my chest. I just want to go back to my book, but with Soda talking and jumping all over the place, I know that ain't happening.

I must look plenty mad, because Soda stops grinning and walks over to me, nearly tripping over one of his socks along the way. He looks at me with a serious expression, "you know I'm just joshin' you, right, Pony?" He tousles my hair, as I said; Soda never teases me to be cruel.

"Watch this, Ponyboy!"

I'm watching, cringing, but watching.

He jumps up on top of his bed and his eyes have a determined, focused look to them. It is a look I only see from him when he either angry or concentrating; in other words, not very often. He moves his arms behind his back and sticks out his tongue a bit, just like Darry does. My eye follows his lanky body from the top of his head to his stocking feet.

I bite down on my fingernail, close my eyes and pray.

WACK!

I look up and see my brother, a huge grin on his face. I am so overcome with relief that he didn't try to throw himself across the room; I don't even feel the sting of the pillow. Quickly, I grab the nearest pillow and we are soon chasing each other around the room, wrestling and laughing. For someone my age and size I am a pretty good wrestler. That is partly because I have two older brothers who taught me everything I know, and partly because said older brothers almost always let me win.

I like wrestling with Soda, Darry always lets me pin him down right away. He makes it too easy. Soda makes me chase him and really wrestle him to the ground.

Our warrior camp/bedroom is now a wrestling ring: pillows, sheets and Soda's dirty socks go flying all over the place. We are laughing so hard we don't even notice our mother standing in the doorway.

I love my mother, but at 11:00 P.M. at night she takes absolutely no gruff from anyone, including her second and third born sons.

My dad rarely loses his temper with us, but when he does, watch out; while mom, although far stricter, is much more consistent. I think I prefer my mom's discipline, at least I know what to expect.

After threatening us with spankings, groundings and worst of all, no "Lone Ranger" if she hears a single peep from either one of us, she leaves.

I can tell by her brisk walk that she's still a bit angry when Soda yells after her "Sorry Mom! We'll be quiet. I love you!"

She stops and chuckles to herself. Sodapop could charm the pants off the Devil, she used to say.

"I love you too, Sodapop." She pauses, "I love you, Ponyboy."

I grin.

"I love you Mommy." I haven't called her "mommy" since I was six, but I did so then.

Soda rolls his eyes at me, "suck up" he mummers. I stick my tongue out at him.

Being a mother for 14 years, our mom has discovered the secret to good behavior: collective punishment. What has been banned by the Geneva Convention is alive and well at the Curtis house. If one of us misbehaves, every brother within 10 feet is likely to get punished as well.

She knows her sons. We hate to see the other guy get in trouble for our misdeed. For one, we love each other too much. For another, we all know that revenge will be merciless on whatever brother screwed us over.

Soda and I clean up the pillows, sheets and dirty socks (blech!) and climb into our beds.

"Sorry I got you in trouble Pony."

"S'kay."

After fluffing up his pillows, Soda turns to me, "Pony, I can't get to sleep. I'm boooooorrrrrred."

Soda doesn't enjoy school and he likes paying attention and sitting still even less, but he's the only one in my family who really listens to my stories. Even Mom and Dad, as much as they try, their eyes glaze over sooner or later.

I try to think of a story to tell. I have a real good imagination, but when someone wants me to tell them a story my mind goes blank.

I think of the book I am reading.

"Well, I ain't finished with it, but I'm reading a real good Indian story."

Soda makes whooping noises. I am afraid our mom will wake up.

"Nah, not like that, like from India."

"Oh." Soda doesn't know much about different countries. "I like Indians, but I like Cowboys the best." Soda mimics the sound of a six-shooter pistol.

"They don't got no pistols in this story. It takes place in India in the real olden days." Soda begins to tap his hands against his pillow. "But, they have lots of cool fighting and stuff."

This gets Soda's attention.

"Well, there was this family with five boys."

"Wow! Five boys. I bet they drove their mom nuts. Can you imagine if we had 5 kids in our family? Mom would go crazy. Well, I guess we already do, with Johnny and Stevie."

I like Johnny a lot, but I don't like thinking of Steve as anything but a giant pain. I continue. "Anyways, there was this family with five boys. The oldest boy was named Yudhishthira, he was the leader he always told the others what to do, but he was real wise and all."

"That sounds like Darry."

"The second brother, Bhima, was really big and real good at fighting and wrestling."

"Ha, now that guy sounds just like Darry!"

"Darry don't wrestle…"

"Yeah, but he's a real good at football and gymnastics and fighting."

"The second brother also loved to eat."

Soda guffawed. "That boy is Darry! Did you see him at dinner? Man, he was woolfin' down his food so fast Mom went ape on him!"

I couldn't disagree with him so I went on. "The third brother was named Arjuna…"

"That sounds like a girl's name to me."

"Nope, Arjuna is a guy."

"Pretty sissy name if you ask me."

I didn't.

"As I was saying the third brother, Arjuna, was really good at using a bow and arrow…"

"You sure there ain't no cowboys in this story?"

"Nah. I told you these ain't those types of Indians. Anyways, the middle brother was also real good, like he don't lie, cheat or steal from nobody."

"Now that guy sounds like both Darry and you."

"What you mean? I don't know how to shoot a bow and arrow. I don't think Darry does either."

"No, but you guys could learn it you try. You guys never get in trouble in school."

It was true; Soda was the only one of us who got notes sent home from school.

"The fourth brother, Nakula, was really popular and everyone liked him. He was good at riding horses too. You hear that Soda, that boy sounds like you."

He doesn't say anything, so I continue.

"He was also…" I pause dramatically, "the handsomest boy in the entire country."

At this, Soda gives a little chuckle.

"The littlest brother, Sahadeva, was really smart but really quiet."

"That's you Pony!"

He practically roars with excitement, and for a moment I'm afraid our mom is going to wake up again and really give it to us.

I smile to myself.

"Oh yeah, these last two boys were twins and were really close."

"Hmm mmm" Soda just mumbles.

"These brothers were really good friends"

"Just like us."

"Uh-huh. But they had like 100 cousins and they got in a bunch of fights with their cousins. Cause their cousins were always real mean and bossy and ornery."

I don't t tell my brother that their cousins reminded me of Steve Randle, because Steve was Soda's best friend and that wouldn't have been nice; even if it is true.

"So the brothers get into a lot of adventures; like the oldest brother was a gambler and he gambled away their money, so they all had to live in the woods as punishment."

"Don't sound like punishment to me. Shoot, I like the woods. Remember how Dad caught that big ol' catfish last weekend?"

I remembered. I also remembered how Soda jumped in the river fully clothed and Dad told him if ever tried a stunt like that again, he'd tan his hide.

Soda said he was "deep sea diving."

Soda is still chatting away about our camping trip with Dad. I interrupt Soda because if I don't I know he'll never shut up. "Yeah, well maybe the woods in India ain't like the woods in Oklahoma, maybe they're haunted?"

My brother doesn't answer, so I continue. "Even though the oldest brother messed up, the other brothers didn't want him to be alone, so the joined him in the woods. Remember them mean, old nasty cousins? Well, after the brothers leave the woods, they are about to get into a big rumble with Ste-the cousins."

"Hey Pony, I thought you said there was gonna be fightin' and stuff. Ain't nothing going on in your story."

"Maybe, if you just listen… I'm gettin' to the good part.

The middle brother, Arjuna, the one who is the best shot in the family, he had this teacher who taught him everything he knew. He loved his teacher. But the teacher is fighting on the side with the cousins. Before they go into battle, the teacher tells Arjuna that if they face each other in battle, he wants the middle brother to kill him.

The middle brother is sad and scared, because he really likes and respects this guy, and he don't want to fight him. The second oldest brother, Bhima, the big guy who liked to fight and eat, he loved his brother, and he saw how scared the middle brother was. So, he came up with this trick to kill the teacher so his little brother wouldn't have to."

Soda yawns, "that was neat of him."

He's almost asleep, but I continue.

"The second brother's trick worked, and the teacher died. Hey Soda, you want to hear how the second brother tricked the teacher?"

"Sure."

"Well, the teacher had a son that he loved a whole bunch. The boy's name was Ashwatthama. The son had the same name as this elephant. So, the second brother killed the elephant. Everyone shouted "Ashwatthama is dead!" the teacher, thinking it was his son that got killed, died of a broken heart. Ain't that something, Soda? Pretty good trick he played, lettin' everyone think the little boy was dead."

"Mmm." I take that as a yes.

"That sucks for the Dad though, I mean thinking his kid was dead and all that."

"Yeah." I didn't like to think about that part.

"The battle continues and there is a bunch of mutants and monsters and real cool stuff like that. There is also a girl involved, but I skipped over that part.

Anyways at the end of the story the five brothers are victorious, but the gods want to test the oldest brother. So, they send him to hell."

I relish the taste of a swear word on my mouth, but Soda is dead to the world.

I don't tell him the ending. The oldest brother sees that his four brothers are in hell. He is terrified, but in insists on staying down there with them, because to him, life without his brothers is hell enough. After he makes his decision, the gods tell him that this was all just a trick to test his virtue. He passed, and he can be reunited with his brothers, in heaven.

I think it's a nice story.

Soda is snoring quietly, it's the only thing he ever does quietly.

It's strange what our minds choose to remember. I have only the foggiest memories of the week following my parents' deaths, but I remember every single detail of this one random night with my brother.

At the time, I liked the story because those brothers reminded me so much of us, right down to their personalities and hobbies. At the time, I thought the idea of brothers who fought for each other and sacrificed for each other and who were even willing to go to hell for one another was a neat story.

But then we grew up. Looking back at our lives, and what happened to each one of us, and what happened to Soda in Vietnam and what happened to us when he came home, this story of brotherly sacrifice still haunts me to this very day.

A/N: S.E. Hinton owns.

The book Ponyboy talks about is the classic "Mahabharata." Through Google books I found a book for children published in 1901 that summarizes the stories in the Mahabharata, I figured Pony is reading something similar. Although knowing how smart Pony is, he could just as well be reading it in the original Sanskrit. ;)

Thank you so much for R&R. I truly appreciate it so much. :)