The Outsider Ch. 21

There were a few declared art majors among the group who produced much better images than most of their flaky classmates. The artists were serious about their training, but they looked at Ruthie in the detached manner as a "subject", not very different from a bowl of fruit or any other inanimate object.

Ruthie had wondered about possibly making friends with some of the more serious art majors, but personality issues, both hers and those of the art students, got in the way. As always, Ruthie's nervous behavior and difficulty making small talk complicated her efforts to make new friends. She could not talk about art because it really did not interest her, while geology was not something the typical art major would want to hear about. Besides, the artists tended to be so wrapped up in themselves, that in comparison they made Jen look like the picture of friendliness. They were a cliquish group that did things Ruthie did not approve of, such as defacing their bodies with tattoos and piercings, and using ecstasy and pot.

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By the end of February Mike realized that his relationship with Ruthie had not changed as much as he had feared it would a month earlier. Her failure to make any new friends, along with her experiences with some of the male art students, kept her emotionally tied to him.

Several guys enrolled in life-drawing tried to hit on Ruthie. However, it was clear the only reason they were interested in her was because they had seen her in the nude day after day and assumed that she was "easy". Even for someone as socially inept as Ruthie, it was obvious they had no interest in getting to know her as a person. She rebuffed them by telling the truth, that she had a boyfriend. When one guy was overly insistent, she asked Mike to pick her up from class to show everyone she was indeed off-limits. She took his arm and glanced at the art student who was pressuring her. See? I told you I had a boyfriend...

Mike had to take a break from his parking job to get her, so he arrived in his uniform and received a lot of hostile looks. Ruthie never realized it, but having Parking Officer # 036 come into the building finished off whatever chances she might have had connecting with someone in the art department. Nearly all of the students enrolled in the two courses had received numerous meter violation tickets from that hated "Parking Nazi". Now everyone knew the class model was his girlfriend.

Once again, even in the art department Ruthie Burns was an outsider. She didn't belong with the art crowd any more than she belonged with any other group. She couldn't relate to them. It seemed that, no matter what, life always pushed her back into Mike's arms. He always was there for her...the only solid part of her existence that she could count on. He was her companion, really the only person in all of Davenport who even cared whether she lived or died.

During one of her counseling sessions Dr. Hartman pointed out: "Remember, there's a lot worse things to base a relationship on than the need for companionship."

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At the end of February Doña Lisette changed apartments. She had to move out of the relatively comfortable place she had shared with Ruthie over the past six years because she no longer could afford the rent. The place she moved to was a single room unit in a complex that was considerably more run-down. She could not deal with the humiliation of having her fellow church-goers assisting her and her brother still was not speaking to her. That left only one person who could help her move: her daughter.

Ruthie drafted Mike to help out. He drove his girlfriend to Salinas, rented a van, and showed up at her mother's place. Doña Lisette was not very talkative, even though she was grateful that he had made himself available to help her with her stuff. She packed boxes while Mike and Ruthie exhausted themselves lugging cheap furniture down the steps and loading it into the van. The young couple exchanged looks the first time they saw her mother's new apartment. Ruthie summed it up best by commenting:

"This totally sucks."

They spent all afternoon exerting themselves, but finally, after four trips in the van, they had all the furniture and boxes moved. Mike returned the rental and showed up in his own car. Ruthie and her mother thanked him by having dinner ready. They ate quietly. Mike could tell that his girlfriend's mother was depressed from being forced to let him see what had happened to her.

As she ate her joyless dinner, Ruthie's nervous eyes scanned the small dank dwelling. She was angry that, after so many years of loyal service to her employer, the only reward her mother had received was to be bumped down from full-time to part-time status. The new hours meant not only the loss of a third of her income, but also the cancellation of all her benefits. The only consolation was that she hadn't been laid off...yet.

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When they returned to Davenport, the two students walked to the observatory that overlooked the Pacific Ocean. Ruthie badly wanted to be held as she tried to make sense out of what had happened that afternoon. She was very grateful to have her companion's arms around her and his body shielding her from the cold night breezes.

She pulled his hand to her lips and kissed it. I don't know what you see in me, Mike, she thought to herself. I'm a totally sucky girlfriend.

Her thoughts turned back to her mother. She mumbled: "So much for 'el sueño americano'."

"Yeah...I guess so..."

"You know...all she needs is an apartment. Just a fucking apartment. And now she can't even have that."

Mike remained quiet. He was depressed, but his depression was changing over to anger. He knew that an era had passed, a time that working hard and being productive meant anything. His father had worked hard all his life, only to lose his house and his business. Ruthie's mother had worked hard all her life, only to end up as a part-time employee living in squalor. It seemed that no one got ahead by working hard anymore. Across the US there were millions...tens of millions of Mr. Sinclairs and Doña Lisettes...honest people pushed into the dirt by paid-off politicians and sociopathic CEO's...

So what does all that really mean? What kind of nation are we turning into?

Mike thoughts turned to his co-worker Sam Rayburn, with his lazy temperament, his plot of land in the mountains, and the daily bucket of coins that paid for his laid-back lifestyle.

That ain't working, that's the way you do it. Your money for nothing...

Sam was the one who had everything figured out. Everyone else that Mike knew, himself included, had been played for fools.