THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY

PART VII

Ruthie Camden strolled into her house, after putting up with Lucy's spawn, and gave her mother a look that simply stated, meant 'I know something you don't know.'

Annie hated looks like this—especially ones coming from her daughter. It didn't take Annie too long, though, to get the news out of her child.

"Ruthie? Is there something you want to tell me?'

"Not really."

"Are you sure?"

"Well... there is something. I just... I don't know if I should tell you about it."

"What do you mean?" Annie knelt down to her daughter, meeting her at eye level. "You can tell me anything, Ruthie."

Annie stared into Ruthie's eyes, prompting David to begin playing his toy guitar softly in the background.

"Well... it's about Mary."

"Mary? What's about Mary?"

"Her husband is in jail."

Annie was slightly surprised, but not shocked.

"Jail?"

Ruthie nodded. It was everything the girl could do not to smile.

"Where did you find that out?"

"Lucy..." Ruthie thought for a moment. Why did Lucy have information on Carlos' legal problems, anyway? And when was Lucy planning on telling anyone? Usually, if Lucy found out anything about anyone, she would immediately direct it to mother.

Through another quick process of elimination, it quickly became obvious to Ruthie that Mary had not only told Lucy about what happened, but she also must have asked Lucy not to tell anyone about Carlos' arrest.

This gave Ruthie an idea. Why not have a little fun? She thought.

"Lucy told me."

"Lucy told you?" Ruthie nodded. "How did she know?"

Ruthie shrugged. "Mary must have told her."

"Well, why did Mary call Lucy first? Why didn't she call me? I'm her mother—I should have known first."

"I don't know. Maybe you should call her up. If she's home. For all I know, she could be at the jail."

"At the jail?"

"Uh-huh. Lucy went to get her cast off, but she probably picked up Mary and took care of Carlos too. If you ask me, mom, I think they're going to try and have all this go over and not let you know about it."

Ruthie made a lot of sense. This angered Annie. The idea of Mary and Lucy hiding the arrest from her, that is.

"I think I'll try Mary right now."

Annie went to her phone and dialed up her daughter's number. Ruthie watched, guardedly giddy, as her mother waited for what seemed like hours before hanging up.

"Not there?" Ruthie asked.

"It certainly doesn't seem that way. Maybe I should stop by the house."

Ruthie perked up at this idea. Imagine the possibilities of a direct confrontation! Not only that, but...

"I could drive."

Annie looked at her daughter, skeptically.

"What?" Ruthie asked, upon seeing her mother's look.

Ruthie, sitting in her makeshift high chair, drove at a snail's pace, to appease her mother. Ruthie, of course, wasn't happy about this at all.

Annie, of course, didn't care. She was busy, steaming about the fact that her daughters were deliberately hiding something from her.

It enraged the matriarch of the family. Annie had a right to know. Everything.

The fact that Mary and Lucy would try to cover up a story as big as the fact that Carlos was in jail made Annie feel not only angry, but also insignificant.

It was a 'What am I? Chopped liver?' situation.

Annie was snapped from her thoughts by the fact that Ruthie was heading for a stop sign and not slowing down a single bit.

"Ruthie, are you paying attention to the road?"

Ruthie, who had herself, been fantasizing about the potential brawl that would happen once Annie and Mary got within ten feet of each other, snapped from her mental slumber.

"Huh? Of course."

Ruthie slowed the car to a stop, and then turned the corner.

From there, things became very interesting.

There was a small dog in the road. Very small. It bore a striking resemblance to the Taco Bell dog of years ago.

Ruthie spotted the dog, just as she was turning onto the road. Using her recently acquired driving instincts, she pressed down on the break to avoid running the poor thing over.

Unfortunately for her and her mother as well, she pressed down on the brakes hard.

Too hard.

The car jolted to a stop quickly and sharply. Both Annie and Ruthie were thrust forward, only their seatbelts keeping them from flying through the windshield.

Then, they were thrust backwards, hard, against their seats.

"Oh God..." Ruthie moaned, instant pain traveling to her neck. "My neck..."

"What were you thinking? What were you doing?"

Ruthie grimaced. "There was a dog—"

"Don't you realize we could have been killed?"

"What was I supposed to do?"

"Are you alright?"

"I guess, I just—"

"Get up."

"What?"

"Get up, I'm driving."

"I can drive, I just—"

Honking horns. A car had driven up behind them, and the inhabitants were wondering why the Camcar was stalled in the road.

"Get up."

"I can drive—"

"There are people behind us—let me drive."

"No! I can—"

Ruthie stopped herself. There was no arguing with Annie Camden, and she knew it. Not only that, but Ruthie knew Annie was just waiting for the right button to be pushed so she could lay the hammer down.

If there was one thing Ruthie didn't want to happen, it was for Annie to have the satisfaction of grounding her.

So, Ruthie caved in, and traded seats with her mother.

Annie drove the rest of the way to Mary's residence, while Ruthie sat, sulking. Not only was she ticked off for not getting to drive, but as they drove, she began to feel the pain of a sharp, painful headache. How would she be able to enjoy the inevitable fight that was coming if she was struggling with a headache and a pain in her neck?

The day started out so well, but had definitely taken a turn towards the worse in the last few minutes. Ruthie hoped that downward trend would not continue.