Ruthie Hancock

We witness the trauma of recently widowed Ruthie as she pretends to be Eleanor to avoid disappointing Toby and feeling the wrath of Rachel, and along the way, we learn a lot about Ian.

Rachel drove Toby and me to Ruthie's house (yes, she knew where it was) and I nervously stepped out of the car. Toby hopped out after me and bounded up to the door. Once again, his agility amazed me.

He rang the doorbell excitedly and bounced on his toes impatiently before ringing it a second time, a third time, a fourth. The door swung open and I could see Toby's reflection in Ruthie's glasses as his eyes widened.

"Ellie Nor?" he spoke as if he were a young child seeing Santa Claus on his roof. "Is that really you?"

I saw Ruthie glance up at Rachel, who stared intensely at her through narrowed eyes. I noticed that before she answered, she cleared her throat. "Yes, it's me. And who-"

Rachel coughed loudly and widened her eyes at the frightened old lady.

"Wait a minute! You couldn't be... Toby?"

"Yes, it's me! It's me, I'm alive! I didn't died, I just getted a new family and a new name, but now I am here to see you because I loved you!"

Ruthie looked pleadingly up at me, as if asking what she should do. I silently mouthed "I love you too".

"I...love you too, Toby!"

"You...you do?"

Rachel interrupted. "Don't you think you should invite him inside?"

"Of course! Where have my manners gone today? Please, come in!"

"Okay!" Toby went inside and we both followed. They sat down on the couch in the living room. "I can't believe you loved me!"

"You can't?"

"I thinked I did it wrong!"

"Did...did what wrong?"

"Maked love wrong! I thinked I did it wrong because you was crying like you was ascared of me and you said I hurted you but you did loved me after all! I'm so so very happy!"

Ruthie paused for a moment, taking in what he'd just so casually implied. Toby gasped. "Wait a minute!" Rachel brought her hand to her mouth nervously. "Didn't you married Gabe?"

Rachel exhaled and placed a hand over her chest. She shook her head at Ruthie forcefully. "No?" she said, looking over Toby's shoulder at Rachel. "No. No, we um, we broke up. Because..."

Toby looked at the ground, then back up again, slowly inhaling air into his mouth. "Because of me?" he asked.

"No, no. It wasn't your fault. It was be-"

"Ahem!" Rachel clenched her fists. She started nodding her head.

"I mean... Well the truth is that, um, it was...because of you."

"You loved me that much?" he said, his voice filled with wonder.

"Yes. I loved you that much."

"Then why," Rachel interjected, "didn't you ever come looking for him? Why didn't you tell the police what your boyfriend and his friends did?"

What the hell was she doing?! She wanted Toby to think Eleanor loved him, so why is she asking her such heavy questions?

"What are you getting at?!" I whispered into Rachel's ear.

"Don't talk to me," she snapped, "unless I talk to you first. Got it?"

"Completely." Why was I afraid of her? She was just a woman, it's not like she could hurt me.

"Um...what was the question?" Ruthie peeped.

"Why did you let them get away with trying to kill my uncle?"

Her mouth moved, but no detectable sound was made. She was starting to sweat noticeably. She cleared her throat and tried again to speak. "Kill," the first word came out far more loudly than she had intended, as was made evident by her reaction to her own voice. Her hand flew to her throat and she shook her head. She took off her glasses and wiped away the sweat that was running down her face. She tried a third time to speak. "Kill him?" she whispered. "Gabe tried to...kill him?"

"Gabe, Jack, Frank...Tommy."

"T-Tommy? Tom tried to...to kill him?"

"Well don't act surprised!" Rachel said, staring intensely at the poor terrified woman. "You were there, you saw what happened! You could have stopped them if you'd really wanted to!"

"But...but I..."

"Why didn't you stop them? You claim to love him, so why didn't you?"

"I...I do love him...I mean I..."

"Spit it out! You're obviously lying or you wouldn't be sputtering like an idiot."

"I..." Ruthie took off her glasses and wiped away tears.

"Stop it!" Toby yelled, jumping from his seat.

Rachel's face flushed bright red and and eyebrows sunk so low that they obscured the top half of her eyes. I was just waiting for steam to spill out of her ears. "What did you say?" she growled.

"I said stop it! You're making her cry!"

"You think she loves you?" she snapped.

"She says she does and I believe her."

"Then why doesn't she prove it?" She was looking at Toby, but it was clear who she was talking to. A smile crept onto her face and she bit her lip to hide it.

"Prove it? How do you want me to-" her eyes widened suddenly and her lip trembled. She shook her head pleadingly, begging her not to say another word, not to make her do it.

"If you love him, then make love with him."

Poor Ruthie just held her hand to her mouth and nodded slowly, tears running down her face and fogging up her glasses.

"Why are you crying?" she taunted. "I thought you loved him. I thought you wanted this."

"I do want this. I'm just...I'm just so happy that I have to cry."

Rachel left me standing in the living room, stunned. "Get in here now."

I followed her into the kitchen, but I couldn't let her do this. Pretending to be someone is one thing, but having sex with someone you're not interested in at all? It was basically pre-arranged rape! It wasn't really consensual, she had just agreed because Rachel had threatened her.

Especially after what Ruthie had told me earlier that day: that Tommy was the only man she'd ever kissed, let alone slept with! I wasn't about to let Rachel rape that woman, no matter how big of a psychopath she was. I couldn't have prevented my mother's rape because I was too young. But if I had a chance to make up for it, to prevent another innocent woman from having her life stolen from her, I wasn't going to just stand by and do nothing.

"You're really going to leave them in there alone?" I asked. "Aren't you afraid that Ruthie might...tell him the truth?"

"If she wants to live she won't."

My legs were suddenly shaking and I fell to my knees. "What are you doing? Get up! Now!"

But I couldn't get up. There was nothing I could do to give this woman back her life. It was too late. Whether it was having her loyalty to her freshly dead husband broken and being left with the guilt to pick up the pieces, or literally being killed, one way or another, her life would be taken from her.

If I hadn't gotten so obsessed with these people's secrets... If I had just minded my own business... If I hadn't gone so far as to lie to a child and make a promise I knew I couldn't possibly have kept...Ruthie would have been fine. Not only did I not stop her from being raped...I caused it.

I knew I couldn't live with myself after that, so I might as well try to save Ruthie and let Rachel kill me. Then I could at least hope she'd spare the old woman. I really didn't know what to expect with Rachel, but it was better to try and fail than to kill myself and take the easy way out. I didn't want to get away from my problems, I wanted to get away from myself.

But just as I was about to do something, Rachel said, "They're being way too quiet!" She ran into the living room and looked accusingly at Ruthie, saying, "What did you do?"

"I...I didn't do anything!"

"Why not? I thought you were going to-"

"She didn't wanted to! Just leave her alone! Stop being so mean to her!" Toby called. Again, Rachel was angry, but this time she had prepared an answer.

"How dare you talk to me like that? After all I've done for you, you just treat me like-"

"All you ever done for me is lie!" Rachel jumped back. "Nothing you done was real anyways because since you did it as my niece and you wasn't really my niece."

She stood speechless, utterly shocked. After an uncomfortably long silence, she finally hissed, "Look at who you're defending! You think she loves you? You think that was real? She doesn't even know you, and she surely doesn't love you!"

Ruthie shook with fear and Toby scrunched up his face. "You're lying again! She does loved me! Right Ellie Nor?"

Ruthie's lip quivered and she brought a hand to her mouth to muffle her sobs. "Right?" Toby choked. "Ellie Nor?" She was visibly pained as she shook her head.

"You don't loved me Ellie Nor?"

She took a long, shaky breath and let it out in broken sobs.

"Ellie Nor?" She brought another hand to her mouth. "You're...not Ellie Nor?" he finally realized, trying not to cry.

She shook her head again.

"Then...who are you?" he sobbed. He scrunched up his face in concentration, clearly trying to conceal how crushed he was.

I was powerless. I wanted to do something but I couldn't. I didn't know what to do. I'd been a watcher since childhood. I'd never been a doer. I was a watcher and a solver and a finder but never a doer or a fixer. How could this possibly be fixed?

Then I noticed Rachel. She was watching too. Just watching. But she had a sadistic grin on her face and her eyes were eager. I threw up.