Chapter Twenty-Five

It was the end of May, and school had just let out. True to their promise, Ruthie and Peter gathered their belongings and got ready to go to Buffalo. Ruthie wasn't exactly looking forward to it. As much as she loved the Colonel and Ruth and wanted to make their remaining days the most comfortable they could be, she knew she would have to face her father again. The last time they talked hadn't been a pleasant conversation at all. Peter wanted to mind his own business, but knew that if he ended up marrying Ruthie, Eric would be his father-in-law and he at least wanted the minister and his daughter to have a truce if nothing else.

Ruthie and Peter were driven to the airport by Lucy, who was rushing to get back to visit a few of her parishioners at the hospital. After the routine of checking in, the two settled into their economy class seats for the flight to Buffalo. They were waiting for the dreaded in-flight meal when a flight attendant asked them what they wanted to drink. It was Mary.

"Mary," said Ruthie in total shock and hugging her sister, "what a surprise!" Ruthie looked down at her sister's tummy, which was now fully protruded and in the shape of a volleyball.

"Say, Mary," asked Peter, "aren't there rules about pregnant women not being allowed to fly when they're so many weeks into their pregnancy?"

"You're thinking cruise lines, Peter," said Mary, laughing. Knowing what the kids wanted from experience, she served them both iced tea. "Actually, I'm going back to Fort Lauderdale, via Buffalo. Then I'm off for about three months. I'm due next week, as you both know, and I needed the overtime; but I don't want to risk going into labor in-flight. You guys know what happened to Deena." Mary shuddered. "Fourteen years in remission, the cancer comes back, and it spread to her hooters?"

"She's fine for now, Mary," reminded Ruthie. "But any plans Simon had to go on a coach tour in France this summer while Deena was bonding with Annie are now out. He's going to have to be by her side almost constantly until school starts again, just in case she has another recurrence."

"Yeah," said Mary. "Well, I have to get back to work. And, by the way, congratulations to both of you - for wanting to help out both John and Ruth. I would too if it weren't for this." She pointed to her abdomen.

"Thanks, Mary," said Peter. "Say hi to Robbie and good luck when your son does decide it's time."

Mary smiled, and continued up the aisle.

The flight was uneventful, and by the time the plane landed in Buffalo it was early evening. After claiming their luggage, Ruthie and Peter went to the arrivals lounge, looking for any sign of Eric or his siblings. They weren't around. Ruthie then called her grandparents' number. There was no answer.

"That's odd," thought Ruthie. "There's always someone home at the burg."

"Maybe we can grab a taxi, go to their place, and find out if they're okay," suggested Peter. "We can then unpack and order in supper. I feel like Chinese take-out, if you're game."

"No problem," said Ruthie.

They found a taxi, pretending to be a brother and sister visiting relatives in town, and started down the highway towards town. No sooner than the cab reached their desired off-ramp when Buffalo was hit by a torrential downpour. The taxi driver deliberately slowed down, not wanting his young charges to get hurt. The drive took another fifteen minutes, but Ruthie and Peter didn't mind. They wanted to get to their home for the summer each in one piece.

Having arrived where they wanted to be, and then paid their fare and an extra tip to the driver, Ruthie and Peter retrieved their luggage and walked up the cobblestone walk to the guesthouse where Mary had crashed during her year of exile from Glen Oak. Ruthie, who had the key on her chain, opened the door. It was empty, except for the usual furnishings. The lovebirds dropped their luggage and then headed for the main house. It, too, was empty.

"Now this is weird," said Peter out loud. They walked around the house, and finally found the kitchen. A sheet of foolscap from a yellow legal pad was attached with cellophane tape to the refrigerator door. Ruthie grabbed it and started reading:

"Dear Ruthie and Peter: We tried to reach you this morning, but you were already on the flight over. Mom and Dad finally decided that they need professional help for their last days, and they called Matt. He found a place at a VA hospital, but it's in Manhattan and so we three kids decided we're going to crash with Matt and Sarah at their place until the end comes; which will probably be by the end of next week. Ginger already went back to Phoenix. Don't bother following us, we'll be okay. Just keep an eye on the place. There's enough food in the fridge to last a few days, after that you can use the money and bank card on the table - the PIN number is in the envelope with the money, too. So, Peter, don't do anything stupid. And Ruthie, we'll talk when it's all over. Love, Eric and Dad."

"What kind of a man just takes off like that, not even giving us advance warning?" asked Ruthie angrily, dropping the letter onto the floor.

"Forget that," said Peter. "Don't you get it? We have this house all to ourselves for the next week and a half. All to ourselves, Ruthie."

Ruthie shook her head impatiently, then her eyes widened. At last they finally had the opportunity they'd been waiting for; a chance to reawaken their hearts and souls with each other. Still, she felt uncomfortable.

"Well, if we wind up having sex here, then we have sex," said Ruthie. "But don't you think there's something just a little wrong with dancing on my grandparents' soon to be grave?"

"By this time, honey, they're so high on morphine they won't care anymore," said Peter shrugging, "and there's nothing your parents or his siblings can do, either."

"They could charge us with statutory rape, Peter," pointed out Ruthie.

"Don't you remember what Roxanne told us last year when all that baloney was going on with the Henderson affair? They'll only file those charges if one of the partners is over eighteen and the other is under that age. They're too busy worrying about other stuff they can't be bothered with teens doing it. Besides, do you think your father would really slam the book at you?"

"He did with Mary."

"She was an adult by that time," Peter reminded his girlfriend. "Come on; let's order that takeout, then we can figure out how we're going to spend our time here."

They spent the next two hours reviewing the events of the past year and getting up to date with each other's families. As they progressed through each of the courses, Ruthie was actually starting to feel better, knowing she could talk to Peter like this, the same way they did before that fateful night at summer camp, when they didn't need sex to show each other their mutual feelings. Finally, as they were gathering up the greased-up bags and throwing them in the trash, she finally said what she had wanted to say for a month.

"Peter," she said, "some time ago, you gave me this promise ring and you told me that you'd be there if and when I decided I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. Well, this is your chance to hold yourself to that promise. After a false start last fall, I've decided I want you, and only you, to be the father of my children. This time, however, I want us to have children in wedlock. So, once and for all, I want us to make this relationship an exclusive one. Whenever you're ready to pop the question, I'll be waiting, and you can be sure of what my answer will be. I love you, Peter."

"I appreciate that Ruthie, and I can only say just how much I love you, too," said Peter. They kissed each other. "This won't be the night, though. We're still only sixteen, and we still have a lot of time left. But if you want, the guest house is waiting for us."

Having waited months on end to make love once more to the man of her dreams, Ruthie decided the guest house was too far. She started undressing her boyfriend, wanting her and him to become one on the counter in the center of the kitchen. Once he was bare, Peter completely undressed Ruthie, reached into his gym bag for a condom, and they lay down on the counter, Peter on the right side and Ruthie on the left, giggling the same way they had their first night together. Just a few moments after they finally melded together, the phone rang. Ruthie groaned, gently pushed Peter aside, and ran for the telephone, picking it up.

It was Mary, crying audibly at the other end. There was good news and bad news. The good news was that no sooner had the plane landed and she was getting ready for the final leg home than she went into labor. Less than two hours later, she had given birth to her son, 8 pounds even, and perfectly healthy in every way. The bad news was that, at almost the exact same moment her water had broken, Robbie had been involved in a car accident in Fort Lauderdale, when a drunk driver T-boned him and his car went careening towards a tree. He was still alive, but was in intensive care, and the doctors were worried he might have been rendered a quadriplegic.

"This is the best and the worst day of my life!" screamed Mary. "I finally became a mother, but the father of my baby is now a cripple! Totally useless! How am I going to go on, supporting both my son and my husband? I can't do this, Ruthie, I can't!"

"Calm down, Mary," said Ruthie, still naked. She held onto the handset while Peter, still grumbling at the unwelcome interruption, slipped Ruthie's blouse back onto her and re-buttoned it for her, then started putting his own clothes back on himself. "What hospital are you at?"

"SUNY Buffalo Medical," said Mary. "But what can you do? I need my husband; I want to be with him!"

"Mary," said Ruthie, while she slipped on her panties and then her slacks, "We don't know if Robbie is crippled or not, so let's worry about the here and now. He's getting the best care he can get right now, and that's all that matters. Let's pray he'll be okay. As for you, you need to spend the next few hours bonding with your son, my nephew. Peter and I are coming over right now to be with you and give you all the support you can."

"What about Grandma and Grandpa?" sobbed Mary.

Ruthie filled Mary in on the details, and then repeated her promise she and Peter would be there as soon as possible. She then hung up. As it was, the local subway line was only a couple of blocks away from the Colonel's house and it ran right to the hospital. Peter and Ruthie spent the next few hours comforting Mary and taking turns keeping an eye on the newborn boy, then leaving her every so often so she could breastfeed her son.

By the next morning, they got some good news. Robbie was going to walk again. But he was in for a very long period of rehabilitation, at least a year. Mary was relieved that she still had a husband at all, let alone that he was going to be in one piece and that they could resume marital relations in the future. She told the nurses that she still wanted to wait another day before deciding on a name for the infant. Finally, after talking with Robbie, still very much in pain but grateful to be alive and getting his permission, Mary decided to call her son Martin Caesar, in honor of two of her heroes: Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez.

Peter and Ruthie left the hospital, having stayed there nearly two days straight. Upon hitting the guest house, they picked up from where they left off when they had been interrupted by Mary. At that moment, several hundred miles away in Manhattan, John and Ruth Camden slipped into another coma. An hour later, more in love with each other than they had ever been, Ruthie and Peter fell asleep in each other's arms. Simultaneously, Eric, Julie and George made the decision they hoped they would never have to make. They asked the doctor in charge to pull the plug on their parents. Fifteen minutes later, Colonel John Camden suffered a massive stroke and died instantly. Ruth had a heart attack an hour later and flat lined within a couple of minutes after that.