THE DENVER EDITION – CHAPTER 3
For once Ruthie didn't need her alarm or Quark to wake her up, she was already up at 5 am. Anyone who really knew her would be getting ready for the apocalypse right about now, because Ruthie never woke up early, it was just one of the laws of nature. What had woken her, and troubled her still was the kiss last night. It had been good, darned good; and she hadn't been properly kissed in a while. But even more than the kiss was fear. She was scared that she was falling for Doug, heck she was scared that she had already fallen for him. The thing is that even if she is falling for him, it couldn't work. He was a rational guy, probably one of the most grounded guys she had ever known; there was no way he could deal with the paper. Armstrong was her proof of that. She had heard all about the detective from both Toni and Marissa. Gary had never talked about the guy. He had actually left the city he was from because he couldn't deal with the reality of Gary and the paper. Even years later, he displayed a tic at the mere mention of Gary's name, how warped was that. And if that kind of knowledge could drive someone as analytical and intelligent as a homicide detective off his rails, what would it do to Doug. She needed to know, but she was afraid to know. She wanted him in her life, but at the same time she was afraid he would bolt for the blue if he found out everything her life was about. Maybe Gary could help; she could at least call him for advice. And Nif, Nif could always be counted on to speak her mind, whether Ruthie liked it or not. So she had people who could help her figure out what to do. Now all she had to do was find the guts to ask them. Teressa used to tell her that 'everybody's life has static'; and while that was true, Ruthie just wished hers didn't resemble white noise so much.
Realizing that she wouldn't be going back to sleep, and that she might not have time for a shower later, she went ahead and took one. She left the door slightly ajar so Quark could get in, and just tried to relax in the warm spray. It did work to a degree; Ruthie figured there was a magic in simple warm water that seemed to diminish cares.
When she got done, she walked out in her robe and picked up the paper. She was working through it as she fed Quark. 'Dang' she thought, this is gonna be one of those days. She counted five saves, none of them phonable, that she would have to take care of. "If nothing else, it should take my mind off of my other troubles" she said to Quark. Then she went to get dressed and prepare herself for a busy day.
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She had figured that her first save would be her easiest. Jean Stevenson, age 11 was gonna be buried in a snowbank. Her body would be discovered when a plow truck driver saw something in a bank that he had been pushing back. From the paper it wasn't clear if she froze to death or if the plow killed her; either way it had to be stopped. The problem was that no one was exactly sure when the girl would be buried. The best estimate was 9:30 in the morning, and that was from one of the girl's friends. So here was Ruthie, sitting in her car and staking out a snowbank. Now this looked promising Ruthie thought, a girl being followed by about 5 boys who looked just slightly older. She could see that they were having words, and then the biggest picked up the girl and whomped her down in the snow, the others started to pile snow on top of the girl. Seeing enough, Ruthie got out of her SUV and headed over.
"Jean Stevenson" Ruthie called out.
"Who's askin" the largest boy asked.
"I am" Ruthie replied "and unless you want me telling the cops about seeing you beat up a girl, I suggest you back off."
The mention of the police had the effect that Ruthie was looking for and all the guys backed away. "Jean, is that you hon?"
The girl was still a bit groggy from being slammed down on the bank; her eyes were having a tough time focusing on the young woman. "I'm Jean, who are you?"
"My name is Ruth, and I'm an artist. I was looking for you because a friend of mine suggested using you for a model. I saw you right before those boys started bothering you, and I came over." Ruthie was a bit alarmed that the girl was still having a hard time focusing, even though she was out of the snow. "Where's your mom and dad hon?"
"Mommy's at work, and Dad lives in Phoenix" the girl answered, her words slurring.
"Where's your mommy working at hon, cause I think you need to see a doctor."
"That's where she is, she's a nurse."
"Where at?"
"Denver Memorial Hospital" the girl said, then she just seemed to fold up in Ruthie's arms.
Ruthie loaded the girl into her SUV and headed for the hospital. She was there in under five minutes and carried the girl into the ER. Fortunately the first person she saw was Maggie.
"Maggie" she yelled out "I need some help here."
The nurse hustled up "now who is this?"
"Her name is Jean Stevenson, her mom works here as a nurse. I was driving over and saw her get tossed in a snowbank by some boys. They ran off, but when I got her out she was all woosy, then she just passed out."
"You just happened to see this, and stopped to help" Maggie asked.
"Sure" Ruthie replied "wouldn't anyone?"
"Not in my experience" Maggie said as she paged one of the ER doctors "are you here to see Doctor Howser?"
"I was, but I got an urgent call on my way over; I'll have tocall him later. Tell him 'Hi' for me" Ruthie said on her way out of the hospital.
Maggie just shook her head, the girl was kind and helpful, that was obvious, but always in a hurry. Didn't youngsters learn to take your time and enjoy life. And with that thought, Maggie returned to work.
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Steve Bennett loved the fountain at the Civic Center. The lights and fountains were synchronized with the music playing over the PA, so it was like this constant counterpoint to the sound. But now something was wrong. The lights were flashing funny and the spray wasn't in time any more. He looked down into the water to see if he could figure out what was up.
Ruthie was running late, she had taken too long at the hospital (she had never planned for going there in the first place) and then traffic had been totally against her. She had to get to the Civic Center before a kid was electrocuted by a short in the control system. By running late she was limiting her options. She had hoped to be able to find the circuit box and shut the thing down that way, but running as late as she was that one was fading as an option. She pulled into the parking area and sprinted inside. She knew where the fountain was, she only hoped she was there in time.
While she was running she was going through her few options. Suddenly she had an interesting idea. Reaching into her purse, she pulled out a tazer. This would work if she could get it to fire while it was in the water and not being held. Rummaging through her purse some more, she found a band-aid; not ideal but it would do.
She saw the fountain ahead, and saw a little boy very close to it. Knowing that she didn't have much time at all, Ruthie used the band-aid to hold the on button of her tazer down. Once it was secured she threw it into the fountain at the same time she yelled out the boy's name. He turned away just in time, so the flash didn't blind him. The tazer hitting the water caused the breakers to pop, unfortunately it set off a cascade and all the power in the Civic Center was turned off.
Ruthie just stood there for a moment in the middle of the dark and chaos "didn't see that one coming" she said and made her way to the exit.
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Her next save was relatively close so she decided to walk to it. Some delivery guy was gonna get distracted and run a red light; killing a couple of pedestrians in the process. She checked the time and address again, and found she was actually early.
She stood there waiting and in the free time she had her thoughts turned to Doug yet again. She was gonna have to decide sooner or later whether or not there was the potential for something more here, or if friends were all they were destined to be.
Ruthie was shaken out of her reverie by the sound of a racing engine. She saw the Fed Ex truck heading down the block and realized that it didn't seem to be slowing down. Reaching in to her jacket pocket, she pulled out a tennis ball, and chucked it at the van. It was one of the first things Gary had taught her about making saves, the value of the tennis ball. It hit the windshield and jerked the driver's attention back to the road. He saw the light and slammed on the brakes. The sound of the shrieking tires caused the pedestrians to scatter, so no one was even there when the van crossed the cross-walk.
The driver leaned out of the truck's cab, trying to figure out what had hit his windshield and where it had come from. But Ruthie was already a part of the crowd and headed off to save someone else.
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Monsignor Tom Coughlin was in a bad mood. His lunch had been interrupted time and again by the sound of construction going on in the same building as the restaurant. The upper floors of the high rise were being renovated and that meant a lot of heavy equipment, and that meant noise. The lunch conversation had been difficult at best, he and his companions sometimes having to yell across the table to be heard. So the absolutely last thing he wanted was to be accosted on the way to his car, but that's exactly what happened.
"Is your soul ready if the rapture came today" a young girl asked him.
"Yes it would be young lady, now excuse me" he tried to get past her, but she blocked his way yet again.
"How do you know sir, can you be certain you have properly atoned for your sins?"
"I am quite certain miss, now please let me by."
"What about the anger you're feeling right now?"
"What"
"Well you're feeling angry and frustrated right now, if you died at this very instant, you would be in purgatory for your sins. That's probably not the best place to be."
"I assure you miss, I am quite prepared to meet my maker". As he said this he finally got around the young lady. Just in time to see a rain of cinder-blocks hit and crush his car. The car he would have been in if it hadn't been for the religious fanatic that had delayed him. He turned back to see an enigmatic smile on her face.
She noticed this and said "best be sure about that atonement Father, the end of days might be closer than you think." And with that she headed in the opposite direction and was soon lost in the crowd.
The Monsignor turned back to his car, wondering what the heck had just happened.
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Ruthie was not particularly fond of heights, she wasn't terrified of them, but they weren't her favorite thing either. Right now she had to deal with them directly. A window washer was about to die unless she could do something about it. She grabbed her rope and started to repel down.
Bill Jensen was cursing. The winch was acting up again, and he was currently stuck half way up. He had gotten it unfrozen in the past by rocking the controls. He was just getting ready to start when a young girl appeared on the scaffold next to him. Bill was so startled he almost fell off, almost.
Ruthie looked at the guy and had to suppress a giggle at his reaction. Quickly sobering she asked "Bill Jensen".
"Yeah, who are you?"
"Camden, I'm with the building inspector. You've got a problem with the winches on this thing, right."
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"I was looking at em up there, the friction brake keeps engaging. You try to loosen it up now you'll end up as road pizza."
"So what the hell am I supposed to do?"
"Well, you can go up, or you can go down."
"How am I gonna manage that?"
"Well, I can rig a rope from here to the ground, or you can follow me back up this one."
Bill took a look over the edge of the scaffold "I'll go up" he said.
"Great" Ruthie replied "you lead and I'll follow."
The two of them made their way up to the roof of the building. Once there, Bill took a look at the winches and blanched. He had nearly died and would have if it hadn't been for the girl. He turned to thank her, but the roof access door closing was all he saw.
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Doug's day had been a little less than routine. Having little Jean dropped off the way she was stirred up a lot of dust. Especially for her mother, who was wondering what exactly had happened. Maggie had told them what she could, but it almost caused more questions than it answered. The idea that someone passing by, a perfect stranger had seen something happening, and cared enough to disrupt her entire day by taking someone to the hospital on her own; well it was a bit overwhelming. Doug tried to reconcile this action with Ruthie's rather 'devil-may-care' attitude, and was having trouble. Until he remembered how she had reacted when he asked her why she had done what she had done on that first meeting. He remembered the caring and the sincerity that he had seen in her eyes. It was then that he realized that there were in effect, two Ruth Camdens. The wild force of nature girl, and the deeply compassionate caring girl. What scared him was the fact that he was falling for both of them. She was stirring up feelings inside him that he had tried to bury long ago. Doing what he did, could he maintain a relationship with someone else. Every other time he'd tried had been disasters. If it worked, then that would be great; of that he had no doubt. But if it bombed, could he stand not having her in his life. He had only known her a week, and she already occupied a space in his heart and the thought of losing that was nearly unbearable. The idea that he might have to, scared him the most.
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Nif came back from an early dinner to find Ruthie in the back room painting away. The Doors were on the stereo, telling Jennifer that now was not a good time to interrupt. She knew that Ruthie always played the Doors when she had something serious on her mind. Knowing her friend the way she did; she had a very good idea of what that something was. Her thoughts were cut off by the phone ringing. "Camden Gallery, this is Jennifer, can I help you?"
"Yeah" a voice said after a bit of a pause "I was trying to reach Ruth Camden."
"Certainly, may I say who is calling?"
"This is Doug, I mean doctor Howser. I treated her ankle a bit ago."
"Just a minute doctor, I'll see if she's free."
OK, decision time Jennifer thought. Do I disturb her, or do I leave 'Prince Charming' out to dry. Since he was what was probably on her mind, Nif figured Ruthie should face whatever was bothering her, so she went in and turned off the stereo. Ruthie just glared at the older woman with a very thunderous look. Nifer shrugged it off and said "Doug's on the phone".
The transformation in Ruthie's face was instant and complete. At the sound of his name, she just started glowing. 'Boy does she have it bad' Jennifer thought. Without saying a word Ruthie went to the other room and picked up the phone. "Doug, how's it going?"
"Pretty good here, how was your day after you dropped Jean off?"
"Busier than usual, a bunch of errands to run; how's Jean doing?"
"Real good, just a bad concussion. We're gonna keep her here overnight just to be sure. Oh, and her mom said to thank you."
"No big" Ruthie answered "I was just in the right place at the right time."
"Yeah, well it's a big deal to them and to me too. You're a special person Ruth, don't forget that."
"Thanks Doug, I won't. Hey, are you doing anything tomorrow night?"
"Well I'll have to check my busy social calendar, but I do believe I could manage to pencil you in."
Ruthie could almost hear the grin on his face; "well I'm honored" Ruthie replied. "Just let me know when and where so I can alert the paparazzi."
"Just what I need" Doug said "so tomorrow it is; I'll just leave a message at the gallery when I actually figure out what we're gonna do."
"Sounds like a plan Doug, see ya tomorrow."
"Bye Ruth" There was a moment of awkward silence when they both were debating on the wisdom of adding a phrase or two, but ultimately they both just hung up the phone.
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Ruthie had spent the rest of the evening talking with Nif about whether or not she should pursue something with Doug. Nif, of course, wanted her to go for it, all pistons firing. Ruthie was a bit more reserved, but she was slowly coming over to Nif's way of thinking. So she was in a pretty good mood when she got off the elevator at her floor. That went away when she saw that there were lights on in her apartment. Knowing that she hadn't left anything on, she jerked the door open rapidly, hoping to surprise the burglars. But it wasn't burglars that she saw.
"High honey, surprised to see us?"
"Mom, Dad; what are you guys doing here?"