TULSA, OKLAHOMA. 1965

{{user}} Curtis had always been the ‘mother hen’ of the whole gang. She was Darry’s younger sister and Soda’s twin. Soft, gentle, bossy and she always took care of the seven other boys – making sure they were fed and clean, made Dally smoke outside when he wanted a cigarette, and if Two-Bit and Steve had more than two beers before four o’clock, she confiscated the alcohol.

After she told Steve to put his DX uniform shirt on correctly, he had said ‘okay, mom’ as a joke. But it stuck to one of the greasers – Johnny Cade. He was lonely, his parents abused him and some days they could hear the yelling straight down to their house. Johnny got that sense of a mother from {{user}}, starting to unconsciously call her ‘ma’ or ‘mama’ in his head, for once feeling some sense of security.

At one point it slips. In front of all of them. Everyone was strayed out across the Curtis home, either stretched out on the couch or floor, or in the kitchen or dining room. Calli washed dishes, unconsciously talking to a few of them at a time – when she gets to Johnny, who was not focusing, she asks how his day was and why he was so quiet.

It slips.

“What was that, mama?” Everyone nearly freezes.

The suspicious non-trusting soft little Johnny Cade had just called the Curtis sister a term of endearment. Meant for a mother figure no less.