Call It Fiction 1

Chapter One

Unnatural Causes

It was done. Ruth clasped her hands together in her lap. The Lord be with thee. May He also be with thee.

She sat in the courtroom, a beautific smile frozen to her pasty face. She turned to a young woman sitting nearby with a small child sitting in her lap.

“What a precious child you have,” Ruth said. “How old is she?”

The young woman answered moving a bit away form the woman wearing sunglasses.

Ruth said, “I have a daughter, too. She’s going to UCLA.”

The young woman relaxed the tension in her arms and legs. “Oh, how old is your daughter?”

“She’s twenty-two.”

The young woman with the child said, “You must be very proud of her.”

“Yes, yes,” Ruth said automatically and absently. She took a rosary from her purse and began to rub it, looking straight ahead, smiling as she did before, and paying no more attention to the woman with the child.

It was done for the glory of God. Praise Him. The money would go to Him when she died. Maybe some to Carl if he was a good boy. When she got home what would she do? She would be surprised. But, after all, it wasn’t a total surprise. He had been despondent . . .. She would act perfectly natural. If Michael thought he could disobey her, he had another think coming. But she made sure that Carl had taken care of him. She vaguely realized that Kenny, her attorney, had come back to her after speaking to the judge, such a nice looking man who would surely find everything in her favor, but now even that didn’t matter, she had outwitted them all.

“This is only a preliminary hearing, Ruth,” she heard Kenny saying to her. “We’ll have no problem getting a conservatorship.”

“Then I’ll control everything,” Ruth said, as if she didn’t already.

“You’ll control both your and your husband’s estate.”

“Good. I’m so worried about poor Michael. It’s for his own good.”

“Yes, of course it is,” her attorney said.

Carl was standing against the wall waiting for her to come out. He had panic written all over his taught face. It was a good thing that she was going to marry him. She’d make sure he wouldn’t get out of control or let anything slip. Kenny was talking to her, but she tuned him out. She was thinking again of what she had to do when she got home.

When they reached the place near where Carl was standing in the hall, they paused and he continued walking behind them, submissively, without a word.

She heard Kenny droning on. She thought, I’ll be surprised, I’ll call the police, I’ll be sad, I’ll say that Michael had been very depressed lately and often said that life wasn’t worth living—the truth, all the truth. Praise God. Glory be to God