Read Drowning Ruth for Free Online

suit him, Rudy.” Amanda put a piece of meat into her mouth and chewed it fiercely. “Do you have the wagon ready?”
    “Just about,” Rudy said, and he dug into his potatoes without further comment.
    When they'd finished, Rudy took the extra blankets out to the barn, and Amanda put bricks in the stove to heat. Then she called Ruth in from the yard, where the girl was tumbling in the snow, and half led her, half dragged her up the stairs to dress.
    How had the child gotten burrs in her hair in the middle of winter, Amanda marveled, as she gently picked apart Ruth's mats. Every few seconds, she couldn't resist bending close to rub her face against the girl's impossibly soft cheek, fiery red with the cold.
    And then she peeled off everything Ruth was wearing and startedfresh. Clean underwear first, a cotton shirt with long sleeves, long wool stockings, three little petticoats, her best dress, and then a pinafore over that. Last night, just in time, she'd finished knitting a fancy sweater for Ruth to wear specially that afternoon. It had a cream-colored background and was studded with rosebuds of five different colors, each one a French knot. The whole thing had taken her months. She held it up now for Ruth to see.
    “Isn't it just gorgeous, Ruthie?”
    Ruth fingered a colored nub. “I like the blue ones,” she said.
    “See? They're flowers. Roses.”
    “Roses,” Ruth repeated.
    “Hold out your arm.”
    It was difficult to get the sweater on now that Ruth was so fattened with fabrics, but finally Amanda had wormed her in and she buttoned it up to the girl's chin. Ruth looked a little stiff, like a doll. “Oh, you angel!” Amanda exclaimed, giving her a squeeze.
    “Itchy.” Ruth pulled at the neck.
    “No, honey, you'll stretch it.”
    “No, itchy! It's itchy.” Ruth squirmed and stamped her foot. She began undoing the buttons.
    “Ruth, it is not itchy.” Amanda pulled the girl's fingers away from the buttons and redid the two Ruth had managed to unfasten. “Wait until you get outside. It'll be nice and warm then. You'll like it.”
    Ruth threw her head back and screamed to the ceiling. “No! Itchy!” She yanked at the collar, at the arms.
    Amanda grabbed hold of her wrist, and Ruth let her knees go limp. She hung from Amanda's hands, shaking her head wildly and kicking her heels against the floor.
    “Ruth Sapphira Neumann! Stand up! You mind me now!”
    The girl was light and compact, easy to maneuver despite her struggling. With one swift movement, Amanda drew her against her knee. She swung hard, but her hand bounced off the thick materialcovering Ruth's bottom. Ruth barely felt it, but the shock of being punished made her scream harder.
    “Be quiet!” Amanda shouted, louder than Ruth. “Be quiet!” And then, quite suddenly, she burst into tears herself. “Quiet.” She was weeping the words now. “Please be quiet.” Ruth looked at her with surprise. And then she, too, began to cry.
    Amanda sank to the floor beside Ruth and lifted her into her lap. She bent over her, so that Ruth fit like a snug bundle against her body, and tucked her cheek over the girl's head. “Oh, my baby,” she crooned, rocking. “My poor baby girl.”
    After a while she sniffed and sat up. The sweater had twisted. She straightened it and refastened the buttons that had come undone.
    “Come on, let's wash our faces.” Ruth stood near the basin while Amanda wiped a cold washcloth first over Ruth's face and then over her own.
    “And now I'll have to do your hair again.” Amanda lifted Ruth so that she stood on the chair in front of the vanity. There they were in the mirror, eyes swollen, hair tangled, not at all the sweet picture Amanda had envisioned earlier. For the second time in twenty minutes, she worked a brush through Ruth's snarls.
    “Do you want a bow?” It was taking a chance, asking, because Ruth had to wear one. Really, the whole outfit would be ruined if she didn't wear a bow. The blue one, of course, it