"Ruthie!" Her elder brother woke her up.
"What?" She had turned to her side, propped her elbow to sit her upper torso up to see who was talking to her.
He knelt down to turn on her light then sat down on her bed turned towards her to see her sad, tear stained face that looked a little red around the eyes.
"What's wrong?" He asked passionately when he saw her face.
"I don't want to talk about it? Now what do you want?" Asked in an annoyed and sad tone of voice.
"You are in trouble with dad and mom because you were not watching the twins."
"What were they doing?" His youngest sister asked irritated.
"They were playing dress up and well, I caught them and cleaned them up but unfortunately dad saw me cleaning them up. Dad does not know I am talking to you he's taking a breather, I think. He probably will talk to you tomorrow." Her elder brother who bunked with her when she was a little girl replied.
"Fine, just go away cause I don't want to talk about it."
"Okay but if you are embarrassed to talk to dad or mom, you know I'm always here for you."
He gave her a kiss on the cheek, turned off her light, left the room to go downstairs and watch TV.
The next day—
Ruthie was at school and heard about Eric and his parents. Overcome with emotion and distraught she asked, got permission to go home and Annie was trying to figure out during the car ride why she wanted to go home so early.
What is wrong with her? Why does she look sad, is someone harassing her? Nah, she wouldn't a bully get in her head or is he threatening her that mad her back down? Oh I'm worried about her. What am I going to do? She just looks like someone trashed her but who and why? Annie thought to herself.
After they got in the front door, Eric was just walking to the den from the kitchen when he sees Ruthie, trots over to her, gets on his knees and gives her a big hug.
"You know I will always love you honey. No matter what you did." He told his youngest daughter.
"Thanks dad. I love you too."
"And we'll talk about last night later. Okay." He had his hand on her head and smoothed her hair.
"Okay." Her face full of sadness as her father noticed it as did her mother when driving her home.
She then walked away from her parents, ran upstairs to her room, closing the door and laying on her bed face on the pillow.
Eric was retyping a document that he couldn't find since it may have been deleted, he was in a bad mood the rest of the day. Evening came as Ruthie and her parents were talking to her in the living room; her parents were on the couch and she was just across from them.
"Ruthie, you should have been watching the boys because they could have fallen down the stairs and gotten hurt or set fire to the kitchen, or calling 911 when there is no emergency," She sat quietly as they lectured her more, "you will be asked to watch them again since we feel everyone deserves a second chance and do you have anything to say?"
"I'm glad they didn't get hurt and I don't have anything else to say and can I go to my room?"
"Sure." They looked at her with confusion as she got up and clomped up the stairs.
"What's wrong with her? Something funny is going on here." He asks then states.
They go upstairs to their daughter's room who tells her she didn't want to talk about what was bothering her so they went downstairs to watch TV.
At the Garage Apartment----
"How are you feeling?" Mrs. Kinkirk asked her husband as she sat next to him on the couch.
"Okay, I just wish I can go back out on the street but will have to wait till July to go back with my partner on patrol. Desk Duty is hard." She had put her head on his shoulder as they both had their feet propped up on the table watching TV.
"I know. I'm just glad you are here, that's all that matters." He had smiled when she said that then kissed. His mom, and siblings went back to New York.
"So how are your parents? Do we need to find out how to help them?" He asked since he was concerned that they seemed to be having problems.
"No, I think they worked it out. I hope."
April 24th on a Saturday afternoon
Everyone was out of the house while Ruthie got ready for the memorial service that was ten miles away to the east of Glen Oak. She put on a pair of black slacks, white button down long sleeve blouse and black dress shoes then went downstairs to write a note. She left it on the counter then went outside to the garage, put on her bike helmet, elbow and knee pads then rode her bike to the church. The service was at 4:30 and it would take her 20 minutes to ride her bike down there.
On the right of Ruthie were some shops, stores and a gas station. On the other side were just trees and a sign saying a cemetery that was a hundred yards away that Ruthie could see. There was a ditch on that side and some signs. She also was able to see the cemetery and used it as her landmark to not pass when she made a right to the street, where the church was.
Another twenty miles down that road was Santee, just outside of Glen Oak; down the street past the cemetery, 10 miles away was a neighborhood called Temecula.
She sat at end of the last pew, tears fell as they talked about Eric and his parents, it lasted an hour then they would be laid to rest the next morning. She saw some of Eric's friends who had seen her at school when she was at her locker and they sat with their parents.
An hour later everyone had left, Ruthie stayed a few minutes longer as she sat back but ended up falling asleep. Two hours later she wakes up to darkness and she felt for her helmet, and pads as she put them on and used her hands to on the to find the door and the door to the outside. Then she got pelted by rain, as she rubbed her eyes, she was shocked to see a beautiful sunny day turned into a very dark, cold, wet and blustery rain.
Ruthie rode her bike in the rain then made a right turn but she couldn't even see the cemetery cause it seemed as the whole area was pitch black so she rode until she rode past a road that was now a creek because of the rain. She was freezing and was struggling to stay afloat as she was swept away in a ditch till she felt something and grabbed on to it. As she opened her tear filled eyes, she saw nothing, no cars and no lights on as her heart pumped fast while she froze with the rushing water thrashing past her.
Author's notes: Santee is a small town just twenty miles east of San Diego, Temecula is about 60 miles to the north of San Diego.
