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Show Woodworth/260 perfect, Marty." "But if I had talked to Jake about..." "I wanted you to be perfect. But perfect changed, didn't it? I was worried about Jake being a good dancing partner, and he was taking drugs. I wanted you girls to have good husbands. There's nothing I can do. I have to look out for me now, I guess. You have to look after you." Ruth is silent for a long time, her breathing easy. "They gave me something to make me sleep," she says. "Would it be easier if I just slept and slept forever?" Marty shakes her head, waiting for her mother to continue. "I have to be able to let go. I've had a hard time letting go with you. I don't know what else there is. Ned? Booze? It doesn't really help. Not like I wish it would. It's true what Jake said," she says quietly. "I'm not your mother anymore." The words graps Marty in a sheet of ice, and she sinks against her mother's chest. The metal bar on the hospital bed cuts into her breasts, and she feels the wet slippery skin of her mother's cheeks, the line of bones and teeth under them. The small of her back complains She smells of antiseptic and perspiration, her breast is pushed spongy and withered against Marty's lower lip. Her eye is held shut so that she looks wildly with her free eye, her vision covering nothing but her mother's body. Ruth sobs in a jerky hic-cough, and breathes deeply. "Well," she says as Marty straightens. "We've probably just re-arranged my ribs for good. But it was worth it." Her voice is cloudy from crying, dragged slow by the drugs. "I'm glad you have a boyfriend," Ruth says, settling into sleep. She drifts out of the room. Ned and Megan are sitting together on the bench. They both look up at her as she comes towards them. "Ready + " o-r/?" Ned asks, and she nods. "I'm just going to run |