Chapter 14

Ruth Silverman returned from New York City on the Tuesday after New Years. She’d had to wait until Tuesday because of all the college kids traveling on Sunday and Monday. She picked up her Volkswagen at the long term parking facility at the Dallas airport and sedately chugged towards Brantley. Her forty-five horse powered bug was not exactly burning up the pavement. As she drove, she had time to reflect on her visit with her parents.

All in all, she admitted to herself, it had been a nice trip. Her parents were overjoyed that she was home. Both of her parents noticed that their only daughter had changed while she’d been away. They appreciated that she was calmer and less eager to spout militant feminist rhetoric. In turn, Ruth was much more comfortable with her parents. For the first time in years, their wealthy lifestyle and social status didn’t bother her. Her father had accepted Ruth’s behavior change as a function of her maturing, but her mother wasn’t so sure. Rose Silverman was an astute and no-nonsense woman in the same vein as Rita Fricke. Rose went looking for answers the first opportunity she had alone with her daughter.

“I am pleasantly surprised at how serene you are now. Texas must be good for you,” was Rose’s opening gambit.

Ruth gave her mother a smile and decided to make it easy for her.

“It’s more like someone in Texas is good for me,” Ruth corrected.

Rose, who knew of her daughter’s penchant for the company of other women, approached the subject delicately.

“Ahhh ... and this someone ... do they have a name?”

Ruth laughed, leaned over and hugged her mother.

“Relax, Mother, his name is Thomas Bledsoe.”

Ruth laughed again as Rose’s face lit up in glee. Ruth could almost see the visions of grandchildren dancing in her mother’s eyes.

“Really!?” Rose exclaimed.

Ruth nodded, then gave her the bad news.

“Really. Thomas is an amazing young man, but I’m pretty sure he is not who you and father envisioned for me. His story is long and complicated, but for one thing, he is not a Jew. For another, he is firmly blue collar. He is the warehouse manager and part owner of a feed store.”

Rose gave Ruth a slightly chastising look.

“You are the only one in the family raised in wealth and privilege, Ruth Ann. My father was a cobbler and Saul’s was a butcher, as you well know. As for him being born Gentile ... well that is something I’m sure can be worked out with a Rabbi. He could convert, but regardless, since our lineage passes down from the mother, my grandchildren will be Jews anyway.”

Ruth gaped open-mouthed at her mother. Never in a hundred years would she have expected her mother to accept the idea of Tommy so easily.

She sat down with her father that same evening and told him the same story. Her father nodded and expressed his fatherly concerns.

“He sounds like a good man, Munchkin. Does he know about your trust fund?”

Ruth’s grandparents started the trust fund at her Bat Mitzvah. In the thirteen years since then, her parents and grandparents had substantially added to it. Even though she could have started drawing from the fund when she turned twenty-one, she’d never touched it.

Ruth smiled and shook her head.

“No, Papa, but even if he did, it wouldn’t influence him. Tommy won’t even let me buy him lunch, although I make probably twice what he does. He is stubbornly proud and determined to make it on his own.”

In trying to solve the riddle of her sexuality, Ruth went out on three dates while she was in New York. The first date was with a young arbitrageur at her father’s investment bank. His name was Stuart Moscowitz, he was thirty years old and well on his way to becoming obscenely wealthy. Fifteen minutes into the date, Ruth knew Stuart was a mistake, but she pasted on a smile and endured dinner and drinks afterward. Luckily, it didn’t matter to Stu that she was quiet, because he dominated the conversation by expounding on his favorite subject: Stuart Moscowitz. The only time Stuart included her in the conversation, was when he mentioned how appropriate it would be for him to win the hand of the boss’s daughter, since he was destined to one day take over the bank.

He dropped her off at her parents’ Manhattan apartment with a hand shake and a jaunty, “Till next time.” Ruth figured next time would be about fifteen minutes after hell froze over!

After the Stuart calamity, Ruth instigated the next date. It was with a man with a reputation for being a skilled and discreet lover. He was fifteen years older than Ruth, and only a few years younger than her father. Ruth had to admit that Ronald Platt, Esquire, was everything he was touted to be. He was more technically proficient than Thomas Bledsoe, and had little trouble wringing numerous orgasms from her. The orgasms were numerous, but they were no better than she could do with her own fingers. Her climaxes with Ron had lacked the gut-wrenching intensity that Thomas evoked, but the experience was not unpleasant in the least.

Ruth’s third ‘date’ was with Rachael Simms, her first real lover. Rachael, two years older than her, had been her roommate during her freshman and sophomore undergraduate years. Rachael was now a well respected psychotherapist, plying her trade among the affluent housewives of Manhattan. Ruth’s reaction to Rachael’s lovemaking was identical to her reaction to Ronald Platt’s. It felt good, but lacked the intensity she shared with Tommy. As a bonus, Rachael helped Ruth clear up any confusion about her sexuality by explaining the concept of bisexuality.

As Ruth drove into Brantley late that Tuesday afternoon, she was at peace about who she was, and she was more certain than ever about her feelings for Tommy. She was going to share those feelings with him the first chance she had. She was also going to tell him about her sexuality so there would be no secrets between them. With that in mind, Ruth drove straight to the feed store.

Ruth ran into Rita Fricke right inside the door of the sales portion of the store. Rita was working with Bucky Grimes, hanging display hooks on the peg board portion of a shelving unit. The first shipment of product was due to arrive the next day, and the hooks were the last preparations needed.

Ruth commented on how nice everything looked as Rita excused herself from Bucky so the two women could talk. Rita quickly, but carefully, informed Ruth of what happened to Tommy on New Year’s Eve. Ruth was appalled at the unfairness of something like that yet again happening to Tommy.

“Tommy probably saved my daughter’s life when he dove across that table, Ruth, so how do you think it makes me feel? But, anyway, Tommy seems to be doing fine and recovering from this set back, so tell me about your trip home.”

Rita listen with undisguised approval as Ruth told her about the New York trip. Ruth trusted Rita enough that she left nothing out. When she wound down her narrative with the decision she’d made about Tommy, Rita gave her a hug. Rita was very proud of Ruth for taking the bull by the horns and working things out on her own. The big city girl was starting to act as if she were a Texan.

“Tell you what,” Rita said with a grin, “why don’t you go grab Tommy and tell him all that. It’s close enough to closing that you can drag him home with you, for all I care.”

Ruth practically sprinted out to the warehouse. Tommy broke into a gigantic smile when he saw her. Ruth was about to launch herself into his arms when she remembered his recent injury. She stopped in front of him, unsure of what to do. Tommy laughed and pulled her to him for a kiss that left her breathless and unsteady on her feet.

“I missed you like crazy, Ruthie,” Tommy whispered as she clung to him.

She nodded into his chest.

“I missed you too, Tommy. We have so much to talk about,” she replied.

Tommy didn’t leave the feed store with Ruth. Instead, he took Rex and Bucky home at five, but he hot-footed it to her house as soon as he took a shower and changed clothes. Ruth jumped into the shower also and was set to go when Tommy arrived at her door a little after six, just as the early winter night fell. The couple had a quick supper at the Bypass Truck Stop and was back at Ruth’s bungalow by seven-thirty.

Ruth wanted nothing more than to race him to the bedroom, tearing off their clothes as they went. That’s what she wanted, but what she did was sit him down on the couch as she made them both a cup of hot chocolate. When the cocoa was ready, she took two mugs into the living room, handed one to Tommy and took a seat next to him on the couch. While Tommy sipped his cocoa, Ruth carefully and completely explained what she had done in New York.

“Tommy, I went out on a few dates while I was visiting my parents. The second man I went out with took me home with him and we spent the night together. I also went out with my college roommate and she and I slept together.”

For Ruth, the most embarrassing, and she thought, potentially trouble-causing part of her story, was her admission to having sex with a woman. She watched Tommy carefully as she talked. Tommy’s face contorted into a frown of confusion when she finished speaking. All of this was completely over his head, as he had no experience or frame of reference to understand what she was saying. Finally, he made the only connection he could think of; he related her story to what he felt for the women in his life.

“So you found some other people you love, besides me. That’s good, but I will miss you when you go to be with them in New York,” he said sadly.

Ruth looked at him in horror.

“That’s not the case at all, Tommy!” she exclaimed. “Why I thought I needed to have sex with them is complicated, but love wasn’t the reason. As a matter of fact, being with them convinced me how much I really love you. I told you what I did because I always want to be as truthful with you, as you are to me.”

Ruth’s heart soared at the look of relief and love that Tommy beamed her after her remarks. She also marveled that he didn’t think she was some sort of pervert because she liked women. His comments about that intrigued the hell out of her.

“I have some other female friends who like to do things to each other, too. The three of us have had some great times together,” he said sagely.

Ruth tried to worm names out of him, but Tommy wasn’t about to do that. So instead, she dragged him to the bedroom and let him show her how much he had missed her. Since he’d brought a change of clothes with him, he showed her twice more that night and once more in the morning before he hustled off to work.

Ruth stayed in her warm and cozy bed after Tommy departed for work. She felt too gloriously satiated to move an inch. As she lay there cocooned in her flannel sheets, she gave the future some serious thought. Her well-ordered mind completely understood the challenges that would come in her relationship with Tommy. She could marshal orderly rows of reasons for forgoing all that. In addition to all Tommy’s mental and emotional problems, was the fact that at least four other women also had a claim on his affection. All those good arguments were pointless to her heart, however, because to it, all that mattered was the love she felt for Tommy. Decisions made, Ruth jumped out of bed and dashed to her shower.

With all the attention he was receiving from his friends and family, Tommy should have been his usual happy self. That, however, was not the case. Tommy became more discouraged with every day that passed because of the sudden erasure of all the progress he’d made since coming to Brantley. His right leg tired easily now, and his right arm was weaker than before. In addition, his speech that had been slowly improving was now actually worse than before he arrived. Tommy’s solution to physical problems was to work even harder at the feed store. His rationale was that the more he exercised his muscles, the quicker they would recover. Most days when he left the feed store, his right foot was noticeably dragging.

He took a different approach to his speech impediment by speaking even less when in public, but practicing like crazy when he was alone. Rex was the beneficiary of Tommy’s oratory, and the yellow dog thought he spoke just fine.

Rita Fricke watched Tommy beat himself up for four days before she’d seen enough and called another Saturday afternoon meeting at the library for Tommy’s lady friends. When she laid out the problem as she saw it, Ruth, Margie, Betty Lou and Connie were all eager to help.

Margie Wilcox, their resident medical expert, pointed out that Tommy’s exercise and hard work wouldn’t cure his right side weakness. As it was with stroke victims, only time and his brain healing again would do that. Rita nodded her understanding.

“You need to tell him that as soon as possible. He’ll listen to you about anything medical. I’ll slow him down at work and Betty Lou can keep a watch out for him at home, just to make sure he remembers what you tell him.”

Ruth and Connie came up with a scheme to help Tommy with his speech. Connie actually had the idea a few weeks ago, but had been waiting for Ruth to return to discuss it. Connie’s idea came from remembering the voice coach Beau had hired early in her acting career. The dialog coach taught her to speak with whatever accent the role required, from California beach bunny to Transylvanian princess. Connie figured that the librarian would know where to find books that would allow them to become Tommy’s speech coaches. Since Connie had the free time and Ruth had the resources, they were going to work on the project together.