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Show Woodworth/184 speaking to a child. "Some other time, maybe," Ruth says. She looks out the windshield. "There aren't any parking spcaes." She wants to reach across and touch her mother, but the window cuts into her arm pit. There is nothing she can think of to say. "Good-bye, Mom," she says, emphasizing the word ',rom'. Thanks again for the ride." Her mother looks at her blankly. "You're welcome she says politely. She puts the car into drive, and moves slowly down Charles Street as Marty watches. Inside her apartment, the heat has stuffed itself into all the spaces. It crawls from the ceiling and walls, leaning on her, lying on her, wrapping itself around her body. "What the fuck is she mad at me for?" she wonders, remembering her mother's glazed expression. "I go all the way out there, in the middle of the night. I risk getting raped. I spend half the night sitting around a slimey pond. And she's mad at me. Fuck." She slams around the apartment, making her bed in violent jerks, slapping clean dishes onto shelves, kicking cupboards closed. The buzzer rasps a long, insistent note before she hears it. "Fuck," she whispers. At 11:^5, it could only be one person. Gary. In this heat. She has just over an hour before she has to be at work. The asshole knows that. She needs to take a shower. Wash her hair- She's got to iron a skirt to wear to work. The buzzer rasps again. "Fuck him, fuck him." She walks towards the door, as if drawn. Then stops. How does he know she's home. She could be anywhere. She could be out buying^&tuueries. Or^i^ybe she had to go to work early. |