That was then, this is now

Susan Eloise Hinton, born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on July 22, 1948. Hinton is an author of juvenile fiction. She is a 1970 graduate of the University of Tulsa. Her first and most acclaimed novel, The Outsiders (1967; film, 1983), details conflict between rival youth gangs. Hintons other works are That Was Then, This Is Now (1971), Rumble Fish (1975; film, 1983), and Tex (1979; film 1982). Mark and Bryon are best friends. Mark lives at Bryon s house since his parents died. Bryon is his only family. So they are like brothers. They are used to go to Charlie s for playing pool and earning money.

When they go there once, Charlie says, that a friend searched for them. It is M&M. Everybody calls him so, because he always has some M&M s with him. They find him, and as M&M wants to go home, he is jumped by the Shepards, some Socs. Mark and Bryon like fights, so they jump on them and rescued M&M. When they want some more action M&M gets mad about rescuing someone of getting jumped because he is different from the others and then jumping another one because he is different from them. M&M starts crying and runs away.

The next day after school they visit Bryon s mother at the hospital. She had a big operation for which they sold everything they could. His mom tells them about a kid at their age having no visitors a few rooms away.

Mark visits him. Bryon goes down for eating a hamburger. There he meets an old girlfriend, Cathy.

Later he goes up for searching Mark.

The boy, of which his mother told him, looks awful. He says that he was jumped for taking a black girl home. Mark and Bryon go home. Bryon gets the chance to borrow Charlie s car for Saturday night. So he goes out with Cathy.

They go to a clubbing. There they meet Mark.

Later out there was a fight, but Bryon and Cathy don t want to go out at first, but then Ponyboy Curtis tells Bryon that Mark was hurt. They go out and see Mark lying on the floor, unconscious. They drive him to hospital, but some time later they are able to drive home. At home they are talking about their friendship, their brotherhood.

As soon as he was healthy he is caught by the police, because he borrowed the principal s car. But there is no danger for him. They visit his mother again, and they visit Mike, the kid, a few rooms away, who looked worse, because his father chewed him out, too.

Another day they go to Charlie for playing pool. He tells them to be careful with the guys there. Later on, as they want to go home, they are jumped by the guys, with whom they played pool. Charlie comes out ad helps them out. Then the guys shoot at them. Charlie slams Mark and Bryon down. But then they recognize, that Charlie was dead.

Bryon can t help worrying about that. Mark couldn t understand him, so Bryon spends more time with Cathy.

Bryon s and Mark s friendship more and more divides and Bryon s and Cathy s grows. Cathy tells Bryon that her brother M&M hasn t come home for days now. Mark and Bryon search for him at a ...