The Outsider Ch. 12

During November, Ruthie's trust of Mike led her to "be herself" around him in a very unique way. Whenever possible, she took off her clothes in his presence. If they were on an isolated hiking trail, she loved to strip to her shoes and walk naked. If they heard someone coming, Mike handed her an over-sized t-shirt to put on. Once the other person had passed, she took off her shirt and handed it back to him. It was not just on the hiking trails that Ruthie liked to strip. Depending on where they were driving, she often rode naked in his car, especially if they were driving along the coastal highway or a county road towards a hiking trail. If they entered a town, she'd put on a shirt, but remained bottomless. She enjoyed the daring feeling of being naked from the waist down and having hundreds of people milling about the car, totally unaware of her lack of attire.

Ruthie enjoyed having her picture taken, so by the end of the month Mike had hundreds of pictures of his girlfriend stored on his hard drive. Because she was usually naked when they were together, the vast majority of the images were figure shots. Ruthie loved posing nude in front of well-known monuments, so Mike's collection included numerous pictures of her bare body in front of local landmarks, to include the Santa Cruz surfer statue and the giant artichoke.

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Mike had to deal with some gossip and questions when he returned to work the first Monday after Halloween, but the jokes were not as bad as he anticipated. It seemed that his co-workers were as interested in knowing about his girlfriend as they were in commenting about his Adam costume. A couple of the guys were openly envious that Mike had landed a partner who was very attractive and very adventurous. The dispatcher smiled sarcastically and nicknamed him "sweet buns", but never hinted to anyone else why she called him that. True to her nature, she kept what she did to him a secret, although Mike suspected that she'd love nothing more than to give his bare bottom another grope.

There was a beginning-of-the-month meeting at the start of Mike's Monday shift. The entire department was dumbfounded by the sheer number of tickets he had written during October. The supervisor forced him to stand up and tell his co-workers how he had written so many tickets. Once he was finished explaining the situation in lot Econ-A, the supervisor took over and admonished the other students:

"You see, people...it's not about the 'fun' tickets. Not everything you write has to be for a fire-lane or handicap violation. There's meters out there...lots of them...and you all need to start paying attention to them. Mike here has shown how much damage one dedicated guy with a machine can do. So let's do it, people...let's get out there and do some damage!"

The other student employees reluctantly applauded, but Mike could tell they were not pleased that he made everyone else look bad. Not that it mattered, because his October performance put Officer # 036 at the top of the list for a promotion the following semester.

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As he patrolled lot Econ-A with his ticketing machine, Mike spent many hours in solitary thought. His desire to listen to music faded during the weeks after he started going out with Ruthie. His no longer needed to block out his own memories now that he had someone on whom he could focus his attention and affection. Instead he wandered in silence, sometimes allowing his thoughts to drift aimlessly and sometimes trying to figure out the odd girl who had entered his life...and everything that went with her...her almost psychotic loathing of religion, her fascination with being naked as much as possible, a personality that was simultaneously shy and exhibitionistic, her strong opinions, and her strange mood swings. Yes, she was weird, but to him she was a small bright spot in a bleak world occupied and run by people like the ones who had put his father out of work, or like the jerks that he was confronting every day in the parking lots.

Still, he knew that something was not quite right about her. She had her quirks, to say the least. Above everything else was her desire to constantly talk, which was a result of her need to put into words everything that was going on in her life. He suspected that she might have a learning disability, because never did she pick up a new concept without being given a detailed explanation. She took everything literally and step-by-step, so her understanding of a new topic was only as good as the instructions that described it. Because she could only comprehend what was carefully explained to her, she assumed that other people needed detailed explanations as well. Not that it really mattered with Mike, because he was content to let her talk as much as she wanted. Yes, she was overly chatty, but she spoke from the heart and always was ready to give him a quick hug or an impromptu kiss.

Mike knew that his willingness to let his girlfriend talk freely was a huge help to her. Around him she chatted incessantly about everything imaginable, from class topics to "crazy ideas". He provided her with a crucial outlet for the swirl of thoughts and feelings floating around her head. His willingness to listen also gave her a very important opportunity to test what she had to say. If she said anything too outlandish he could warn her before she said it to anyone else. If he didn't understand her meaning or thought the way she said something was potentially offensive, he flatly told her, giving her the chance to rephrase a statement. Over time he became more blunt and honest about his observations, but always with the goal of making sure she expressed herself in a way that conveyed what she actually wanted to say.

There were other issues that Mike couldn't help her with. As for body language, for example...forget it! He remembered reading some articles that claimed that most human communication was through body language and non-verbal clues, and that at best conversation and words accounted for 30 percent of real communication. Well, with Ruthie Burns none of that applied. With her there was no body language at all. She fidgeted more if she was nervous or upset, but that was as close to communicating with her body as she could get. She did not pick up other people's expressions or changes in posture. She did not pick up on sarcasm unless it was really obvious, and then she'd become hostile if she thought she was being made fun of.

Eye contact was another on-going issue for Ruthie. When she was looking at people or knew they were looking at her, it was much harder for her to focus on a conversation than if she was standing or sitting next to someone and looking forward. For that reason, she talked much more comfortably while sitting in a car, or strolling through Santa Cruz, or standing at a look-out, or on a hiking trail than she did at a dinner table. Eventually Mike learned that if he wanted to converse with her during a meal, it was much better to sit next to her than to sit across from her.

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At the end of the second week of November there was a positive event that boosted Ruthie's overall mood and helped her push aside the doubts about Mike that she had taken out of Dr. Hartman's office. On Friday morning she got a call from the campus police telling her that they had arrested the bicyclist that ran into her back in October. The investigating officer needed her to come in to verify her picture. The cop showed her six mug-shots of young blond women and asked her to pick out the one who had hit her. Ruthie easily recognized the assailant. The cops told her what was going to happen next would be that, unless she took a plea bargain, the bicyclist would face trial and Ruthie might have to testify. However, as the cop put it:

"We've negotiated with her attorney and probably what's gonna happen is she'll plea out. I already had a little talk with her and gave her a pretty good scare. If she pleas, she'll pay your medical bills and replace your books, and have to do some community service over Christmas break. She'll have a criminal conviction on her record, but right now she's worried more about jail time than anything else."

Ruthie nodded, not knowing how to respond. The cop smiled and concluded with:

"We also impounded her bicycle. If she wants it back, she'll have to bid on it at auction."

It was the detail about the bicycle that put Ruthie in a much better mood. Yes, she would have liked to have seen her assailant go to jail, but she was satisfied that losing her precious ride was an adequate punishment for what she had done.

That night Mike took her out to dinner to celebrate. Ruthie's feelings of gratitude towards him intensified, because it turned out he had been totally right about filing the police report. Because of him, for the very first time in her life Ruthie Burns got even with someone who had hurt her.