THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY
PART VI
Part three of Chapter Four is up. Rated PG-13 for references to Ruthie.
Plot based on a true story
Ruthie Camden arrived at the Kinkirk residence early. It was summer, which meant sixteen-year-olds and others like them could roam free in what were usually their caging times.
The youngest Camden daughter loved the idea of babysitting her little nephew. Or, at least, that's what she told Lucy.
What Ruthie really loved to do was to sort through Lucy's things. For instance, Lucy's diary. That kept Ruthie entertained every time she went over to the Kinkirk home.
Oh! The material in that diary.
Ruthie loved it.
She was planning to use it as part of one gigantic attack on the Camdens once she turned eighteen. She had been gathering information for years, and had enough of it to reduce the entire clan to mush once she was a legal adult.
Lucy, Kevin's punching bag. Ruthie wasn't surprised. Lucy could have been Ruthie's own punching bag, had the right situation presented itself.
After the obligatory hellos, and after Lucy left in a cab for the clinic, Ruthie began her search through the house for good material. Lucy's son be damned—Ruthie had a job to do.
Meanwhile, Mary Camden was busy feeding her son whatever remained in the fridge from the small amount of shopping she was able to do a week earlier.
Usually, Charles wasn't fed, but he didn't mind this little surprise. It saved him the trouble of having to lift his tired arms, and his mother's trembling hands made every bite an interesting adventure.
Mary had called Lucy a couple hours earlier. Lucy requested that Mary e-mail her the address and directions to the jail.
Mary then explained to Lucy that she had no computer.
Lucy then asked Mary to tell her the address and directions so she could write it down.
This was done. After that, Lucy asked Mary if she had considered getting a bondsman to bust Carlos out of prison. Mary didn't know what a bondsman was. Rather than explain it to her sister, Lucy decided to forget about the idea and just pay the bond herself.
Well, she couldn't do it herself. Kevin owned the house, and owning property was a prerequisite to busting someone out of the big house. Getting Kevin to agree to help get Carlos out of jail would be hard, and Kevin literally could not be manipulated. Lucy knew she had a tough job ahead of her, and silently wondered why she was helping Mary in the first place.
Mary, meanwhile, put on a brave face for her child. She didn't want little Charles to worry. She fed him his breakfast with a smile on her face and a scream in her heart, masking away at her true emotions.
That scream in Mary's heart would have become even louder had she known the events taking place in the Kinkirk household.
Lucy had been rushing to get ready for the cab, which had come a little too early for her. The driver had been blowing his horn for several minutes, loudly and obonxiously.
Unfortunately, in her haste, Lucy left the paper with all of Carlos' jail information in her house.
Not only that, she left it in an easy to reach place: not on top of one of those high cabinets Ruthie had to struggle with chairs to reach, but right on the dining room table.
Ruthie, of course, found the paper.
On the paper was scribbled many things. Many things concerning Carlos Rivera and his legal problems. The address of the jail, the directions to the jail, how much bail would cost, and the proverbial yada, yada, yada.
Ruthie was overjoyed.
Literally overjoyed.
She could have done a cartwheel.
Never, in her wildest dreams, did she expect to find something so juicy, so scandalous, so huge, so easily!
She didn't even have to break a sweat to find this. It was sitting out there, on the table, in the view of all.
Granted, at first, she didn't know it was Carlos who was in prison. But, process of elimination helped her greatly.
It couldn't have been Kevin, because he was a police officer, and in Glenoak, they could do no wrong. It also couldn't have been Kevin, because Lucy would never have had the guts to turn him in for spousal abuse.
It certainly couldn't be Matt or Simon, because they were Camdens, and Camdens were untouchable. Not only that, but the two of them hadn't planned on showing their faces in Glenoak again, and the address for the jail was one Ruthie recognized. It was on the same street as the shelter Lucy thought about entering. (How did Ruthie know this? Lucy's diary.)
And, most obviously, the words 'Help Mary get Carlos out of Jail' were written on the top of the paper prominently.
This news, compounded with the fact that Ruthie all but hated Mary, made the youngest Camden daughter a very happy camper.
Of course, she couldn't keep this news to herself. She had to tell Eric and Annie. And once Eric and Annie found out that Mary had been keeping a criminal in the house... let's just say an eviction notice would be in order. Ruthie knew Annie. Ruthie knew Annie was just waiting for the right piece of news to kick Mary out. Ruthie knew this was the right piece of news.