The Outsider
Copyright 2009 by EC
EC's Erotic Art & Fiction - http://www.ecgraphicarts.com/
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(warnings: language, adult themes, public nudity, sex between adults)

Chapter 13 - Do?a Lisette

The middle of November came and went.  Mike and Ruthie turned in term papers 
and started new ones, took and passed all their midterms, and prepared for the 
final round of tests and projects for the end of the semester.  When they had work 
to do on their computers, they quietly worked in Mike’s room.  

However, they often had to go to the library for different projects, especially if 
they needed to look up information in the periodicals section, where a lot of older 
material that had not yet been posted on the Internet was still bound in dusty 
volumes.  Both Mike and Ruthie had to laboriously pick through the volumes, 
because he had to look at some very old political science articles and she had to 
search for literature reviews.  It was a strange experience for both of them, to look 
at material that was 40 or 50 years old, in publications that had gone out of 
business long ago.  The volumes were relics of an era that only recently had 
passed into memory, an era killed by the Internet and electronic storage of 
information.

On November 15th Ruthie resumed her naked escapades in the library basement.  
On that night she and Mike carried their volumes to the study area and stacked 
them on one of the spare tables.  It was only about 10:00, but no one else was in 
the room.  He commented that the tables had cleared out a bit early.  He 
remembered Ruthie’s confession about studying nude and was hoping that night 
she might want to strip for the last couple of hours they were in the library.

“Just to let you know…my offer to play look-out for you still stands.”

Ruthie took the hint and kissed him.  She pulled down her shorts and took off her 
shirt.  She covered the chair with her shirt and sat down.  Although she was able 
to study just fine, Mike found it very hard to concentrate with the thought of his 
naked girlfriend sitting only a few feet from him.  He badly wanted to strip as 
well, but was afraid that it would be harder for him to quickly put on his clothes if 
anyone exited the elevator.  For Ruthie it would be easy because all she had to do 
was slip on her shorts and shirt; she did not have to worry about buttons or 
zippers.  

When she went to look for books or put volumes away, he went with her, carrying 
her clothes and standing between her and the elevator.  There was much less risk 
than there had been when she was alone.  The challenge of her naked study time 
was gone, but so was the fear.  She could simply enjoy the feeling of being naked 
in the basement, under the protection of the guy who loved her.

From that day forward Ruthie continued her habit of being naked in the library.  
With Mike to keep an eye out for her, she expanded the time she could spend in 
the nude, and also experimented with some new areas within the library.  The 
third floor offered another place where it was possible to search for books in the 
nude, but it was somewhat more trafficked and she would not have been able to 
safely streak that floor had she not had Mike to help her and keep her clothes 
handy.  Even with him helping her, there were a couple of close calls.  By the end 
of the month she decided that it would be better to stick with the basement.

----------

As the semester progressed, the two students put in their time at their respective 
jobs and earned salaries that were totally inadequate for their needs and expenses.  
Even so, from a financial perspective they were luckier than many of their 
classmates.  Most of Mike’s expenses were covered by his father’s final round of 
mortgage loans and Ruthie’s expenses were covered by several grants.  They both 
knew that their financial support, although adequate for the moment, was fragile, 
precarious, and could vanish at any moment.  The uncertainty was especially true 
for Ruthie, because she was going to school on state grants that were very likely 
to be cut from the California education budget the following fiscal year.

On the third Monday of November Ruthie showed up to work at 5:00 am as usual, 
but when she arrived it was clear that there was nothing usual about what was 
going to happen that day.  The campus manager, the district manager, and two 
auditors were waiting for her.  For the next two hours they looked at her cash 
drawer and conducted an audit of her transactions.  By 7:00 it was determined that 
her audit trail balanced and that the money in her cash drawer was what needed to 
be there; nothing more and nothing less.  She was dismissed, told that she would 
still get her hours for the day, but she needed to leave the student center and not 
talk to any of her co-workers.  As she was going out the door, the co-worker who 
liked to take long smoke breaks passed her.  He gave her an annoyed look, clearly 
wondering why she was leaving work.  She kept going and did not say anything.  
It would be the last time she ever saw him.  She never learned all the details, but 
two of her fellow baristas were fired that day, one of which was the smoker.  The 
firing of the two co-workers meant that Ruthie was the only employee from the 
morning shift remaining and the manager had to scramble to hire replacements.

The same week there was a positive development for Mike; the likelihood soon he 
would be promoted.  Throughout November he continued to deliver a couple 
hundred tickets per day for the parking department.  His supervisor noticed his 
hard work and had him train two new student ticket-writers.  He told Mike that 
once basketball season started, he would be placed in charge of other students 
collecting parking money for two lots during games.  He also decided to make 
Officer # 036 an alternate for collecting money from the meters.  He would train 
for the meter collection job in December and start with that new assignment in 
January. 

----------

The month anniversary of their getting together came and went.  Neither Mike nor 
Ruthie was the sort to romanticize dates on a calendar, but as it became obvious 
that they were going to stay together, both were faced with having to decide what 
to tell their families.  Mike figured that he would break the news to his family 
during December and bring Ruthie over to his house sometime over Christmas 
break.  He suspected Ruthie would be very nervous about meeting his relatives 
and unless properly prepped might not make a good impression.  The more 
relaxed the meeting with his parents, the better.

Ruthie had not made any plans about introducing Mike at all, because she was 
used to keeping secrets from her mother.  She had a vague intention to introduce 
him at some point in the distant future, but wanted to put it off because she saw no 
reason why Mike had to be dragged into her troubled relationships in Salinas.  

She ended up having to introduce her boyfriend much earlier than she had wanted 
or expected.  At the end of the third week of November, she was talking to her 
mother on the cell phone from Mike’s room, taking advantage of having the place 
to herself on a Friday afternoon.  The conversation consisted of the usual stressed 
dialogue about Ruthie not finding a church when it took a turn she had not 
anticipated:

“Honey, I asked Cristina Rosales to call you.  She told me that she did, a bunch of 
times.  Haven’t you been getting her messages?”

“Uh…no Mom…I didn’t get any messages…that function’s…uh…kinda messed 
up on my phone…the messages, I mean…I’m not getting them…”

“You need to take that phone in and fix it.  Why do you have a cell phone if you 
can’t get messages?”

“I haven’t had time Mom, honest.” 

“Yes love.  But I’ve asked her to go by your room…and she told me she 
did…several times….and she says you’re never there.”

Fucking bitch, thought Ruthie to herself.  Why can’t Cristina mind her own 
fucking business?

“Of course I’m not there!  I’m in the library!”

“Ruthie, she’s gone by your room at 11:00!  You’re telling me you’re at the 
library until 11:00?”

“Mom…I’m in the library until it closes.”

“Please don’t do that to me.  Don’t you know it’s not safe for you to be out like 
that?  What would I do if something happens to you?”

“Mom, nothing’s gonna happen to me.”

“You’re walking around at night…alone…and you say nothing’s gonna happen to 
you.”

“I’m not walking around alone, Mom.  Mike brings me back every night.  I’m 
perfectly safe.”

“Mike?  Who’s Mike?”

Oh, shit…thought Ruthie.  She was silent, desperately trying think how to cover 
that slip.  Her mother’s suspicious voice repeated itself.

“Who is Mike, Ruthie?  You need to tell me who Mike is.”

Ruthie took a deep breath.  She wanted to come up with a lie, but she was a 
terrible liar and knew that lying would come back to haunt her later.  Might as 
well come clean now and be done with it…

“Mike’s…uh…kinda my boyfriend, Mom…”

Ruthie heard her mother’s voice crack on the phone.

“I knew it!  So that’s why you’ve been running away from Cristina!  You’re up 
there leading a secretive sinful life and you didn’t want me to know!  Don’t you 
know that the Scripture says that everything you wish to keep under a lamp will 
be shouted from the rooftops?  Don’t you know that, my daughter?  You’re not 
just running from me; you’re running from the Lord, aren’t you?!”

“Mom!  MOM!  It’s not like that!  Honest!  Mike’s not what you think!  He’s a 
nice guy!”

“Yes, he’s a ‘nice guy’!  I’m sure he is!  They’re all ‘nice guys’ because they all 
want is to use you to satisfy their lustful sinful desires!  I knew it!  I knew you 
would do this to me!”

“Mom!  It’s not that way!  Honest!  It’s not like that!  I’ll have you meet him!  I’ll 
have you talk to him!  You’ll see he’s not what you think!”

“I don’t believe you!  I know that you are a liar!”

“Mom!  The Scripture says ‘Judge not, that you not be judged. For with the 
judgment you pronounce you shall be judged and the measure you give is the 
measure you shall receive!’  You are the one committing a sin, by passing 
judgment on someone you haven’t even met!  At least meet him before you start 
casting stones!”

There was silence on the other end.  

“Mom?”

“It’s OK, love…”

“What’s OK?”

“I apologize.  Bring your boyfriend here.  I’ll meet him.  I shouldn’t have passed 
judgment so quickly.  But if you’re with a man, I am your mother, and I have a 
right to know.”

“Yes, Mom.  I shouldn’t have kept it from you…but I wasn’t sure how things 
were gonna go with him…”

Ruthie managed to get her mother to calm down enough that she was able to give 
a superficial description of Mike and a censored version of the relationship they 
had developed over the past month.  She played up the fact that Mike’s family did 
go to church, although she knew very little about that detail of his life other than 
the Sinclairs were mainline Protestants and not evangelicals.

Ruthie’s mother suggested that Mike go to Salinas to meet her on Sunday, but 
Ruthie knew better than to go along with that, because a Sunday trip would entail 
spending several hours at church.  Ruthie, grasping for some way she could keep 
a minimal amount of control over what was going on, suggested meeting Mike the 
very next day…Saturday…having to make the commitment without any input 
from him.

She was still on the phone when he came in from work, talking in the normal 
mixture of Spanish and English that she used with her Salinas relatives.  It was a 
very strange experience for him to listen to her speaking in “Spanglish”.  Because 
he had never heard her talk to any of her relatives, he had taken it for granted that 
she spoke in one or the other of the two languages, not that weird mix.  He also 
could tell that she was very stressed out from the conversation, and became even 
more stressed out upon seeing him.  She cut short the call:

“Bye, Mom.  Nos vemos ma?ana.”  She pushed the disconnect button.

“What’s going on tomorrow?”

Ruthie took a deep breath.  What’s going on tomorrow…well, that was going to 
be a bit complicated…

“Mike…uh…I kinda told my mom about us…and she’s gonna want to meet you.”

“Tomorrow?  But it’s gonna be nice weather…and I thought you wanted to go to 
the beach…”

“We gotta do it tomorrow.  You mind driving me down to Salinas?”

“Uh…well…no…I don’t mind, but this…kinda came up fast…”

“I know.  I’m sorry…but I got to talking to my mom on the phone and she started 
asking me how come I’m never in my room…and I told her that I’m in the 
library…and then she started bitching at me that it’s not safe to be out by 
myself…and that’s when…I kinda told her about us.”

“OK, so tomorrow I’m gonna meet your mom.  Is that a big deal?”

“Yeah, Mike.  It kinda is…there’s some stuff…a lot of stuff…I mean…I’m 
dealing with a lot of stuff with her…I mean…you’ll meet her and you’ll see what 
I’m talking about.”

“Then I’m gonna have to know what ‘a lot of stuff about her’ is.  Up to now you 
really haven’t told me all that much about her.  I don’t even know her name.  All 
you’ve said is that she’s from a town in Mexico called Culiacan, she jumped the 
border 20 years ago, she’s really into religion, and she wants to go home 
someday.  That’s not a whole lot for me to go on.  I mean, is she gonna have a 
problem that I’m a gringo?  Is that it?”

“No.  That’s not it.  My dad’s a gringo too…so even if it does bother her, she 
wouldn’t be able to say anything.  With her it’s gonna be her fucking religion.  
She’s probably gonna want to ask you a bunch of shit about that…are you 
‘saved’…do you have Jesus in your heart…shit like that.”

“No problem.  If she wants to talk about religion, I’ll talk about religion.  It’s not 
like I’ve never set foot in a church.”

Ruthie fidgeted with anxiety.  

“There’s a lot more to it.  I mean…she’s gonna want to know what we do 
together…and…there’s something that’s been going on that I haven’t told you 
about… she’s kinda pissed at me…”

Over the next half hour Ruthie tried to explain what had been going on between 
her and her mother since she had entered the university.  For the first time in six 
years she had the opportunity to enjoy a break from going to church.  She did not 
have to spend her Wednesday nights and Sundays listening to apocalyptic 
sermons and psychotic rants.  She did not have to “fake it”; she did not have to act 
like she believed in something that she had quit believing in three years before.  
She did not have to hold back the urge to stand up in the pew and scream “You’re 
lying!  What you’re saying is total bullshit!”

The problem that Ruthie had in Davenport was her mother suspected the truth.  
Every time they talked on the phone, she was constantly nagging about finding a 
church.  If all Ruthie had to do was lie from a distance the situation would be 
bearable, but over the past month she had deal that bitch Cristina Rosales looking 
for her.  Ruthie described her with the Spanish word “metiche”, which roughly 
translates as “meddlesome”.  She was totally stressed about that situation, because 
the moment Cristina managed to catch her, she’d either have go to Cristina’s 
church to shut her up, or she’d have to confront her with the truth, which would 
immediately be relayed back to her mother.

Ruthie said all of that while sitting on the bed tensed up.  She was staring straight 
ahead and her hands were shaking.  She concluded:

“One of the things my mom’s gonna want to know is that you’re serious about 
me.”

Mike took her hands and got her to stand up.  He hugged her.

“That part’s easy.  I don’t need to convince her I’m serious about you.  I am 
serious about you.”

Ruthie took a deep breath and put her arms around him.  Yes Mike was serious 
about her…she knew that…and she deeply cared about him as well…but…but…

----------

The following morning Ruthie showed up at Mike’s room in a conservative green 
dress and matching top.  It was strange for him to see her in that outfit, because it 
was the most clothing he had seen her wearing since they met.  He could tell that 
she was uncomfortable in that get-up.  The dress looked good on her, but knowing 
what he knew about her, it did not go with her personality.  To her the dress was 
not really clothing.  It was a costume that she had to wear so she could perform a 
role in Salinas that was totally fake.

Mike also was somewhat better-dressed than normal.  Instead of his usual shorts 
and anti-Mega-Town t-shirt, he wore khaki pants and a long-sleeve white shirt.  
When he took Ruthie to his car she noticed that he had washed it and cleaned out 
the inside.  Then she noticed that his shoes were shined and that both the shirt and 
pants were ironed.  It was clear that he was serious about making a good 
impression on Ruthie’s mother.

On their way to Salinas, Mike asked Ruthie to talk more about her time in high 
school.  He was not curious about her church, because he figured that she already 
had told him what he needed to know.  Instead he wanted to know about her life 
in the school itself.  She started by claiming that there was not that much to talk 
about, so he got her to talk about her classes.  He pushed her to talk about her time 
in middle school, about her first year in Salinas and her last year in Lincoln.  
What he wanted to know was why she suddenly moved from Nebraska to 
California when she was 12, but she had made it clear that she did not want to talk 
about that.  Driven by curiosity, he cautiously probed that period of her life to get 
a hint of what happened, without being too obvious.  He got a few clues.  She 
inadvertently told him the move to Salinas happened very suddenly and was 
traumatic for her.  She mentioned in passing that she felt that her father had 
betrayed and abandoned her.  A little while later she said that she hated her father 
and “that fucking bitch he’s with”.  When they approached Salinas, she mentioned 
that in Lincoln she was raised by her grandmother.  When Mike asked, she 
clarified that it was her father’s mother who raised her.  

Like pieces of a puzzle, Mike put together the hints that she inadvertently gave 
him.  While living in Nebraska she had been raised by her grandmother, not her 
father.  She was happy up until her grandmother died, and that was when she was 
eleven.  A year later she suddenly moved to Salinas against her wishes.  He 
guessed that the “fucking bitch” was a second marriage and possibly the reason 
she was forced to leave Lincoln. 

Now that he was about to meet her mother, Mike knew that a lot more of his 
questions about her would be answered.  Ruthie knew that as well.  She was not 
happy about the prospect, because she had been hoping to keep at least some of 
her life secret from her boyfriend.  She sighed, because it seemed things like that 
never worked out for her.

----------

When they pulled into Ruthie’s apartment complex, she directed him to go to the 
management office to get a visitor’s pass.  Once Mike’s car was parked in a 
visitor’s space, she led him past several two-story buildings that seemed in fairly 
decent condition.  He could hear Mariachi music playing from several apartments.  
A couple of groups of small children were playing outside on the grass.  The 
children were conversing in Spanish.  They passed a laundry mat with coin-
operated washers and dryers.  He noticed his girlfriend half-heartedly waving to 
several people they passed.  He received some curious looks from neighbors, 
because no one in the complex had ever seen her with a guy other than her cousin.

Mike reflected that if Ruthie had to come into this place directly from a house in 
Nebraska; that would have been a rough transition, especially for a kid who was 
12.  In spite of the fact the property’s physical condition was acceptable; the 
complex had a somewhat sinister feel to it.  Ruthie had mentioned that gang 
members lived in some of the units and had talked about the night she witnessed a 
shooting.  He definitely could understand why Ruthie’s mother would not have 
wanted her wandering around the area after dark.

Mike reminded his girlfriend that she still had not told him her mother’s name, 
nor how he should call her.  She responded that her name was Lisette Montoya 
Burns.  She realized that she wasn’t sure how she should be addressed: whether it 
should be Mrs. Burns or Do?a Lisette.  Finally she settled on Do?a Lisette.

Ruthie’s apartment was in a building at the far end of the complex.  It was a 
second-story unit that looked out over the parking lot of an office park.  The 
position gave it relative privacy in comparison with most of the other apartments, 
which had windows facing into the windows of other residences.  They went up 
the stairs and Ruthie opened the door with her own key.

“Mom!  Ya estamos!”

Ruthie’s mother came out of the kitchen.  She looked somewhat like an older 
version of her daughter, but her skin was much darker and her facial features 
reflected her mostly Indian ancestry.  She gave Mike a very suspicious look, but 
Ruthie took her arm and introduced her to her boyfriend.

Ruthie did not know what to expect from the introduction, other than assuming 
everyone would spend a very tense couple of hours that would have an unpleasant 
ending.  Mike, however, had some time to think over how he was going to handle 
himself the day.  He knew that, above anything else, he had to find neutral topics 
about which he could talk to a difficult person who could very well become a 
future in-law.  He started out with a few simple questions to figure out how well 
Do?a Lisette spoke English, such as how she liked living in Salinas and how long 
she had been in the apartment.  He told her that Ruthie had mentioned that she 
originally was from Culiacan and asked her what it was like.  

Do?a Lisette talked haltingly at first, but then Mike found the topic he was 
looking for: San Diego.  Ruthie’s mother always had a special place in her heart 
for San Diego because it was the one place where she had some fun.  In spite of 
being afraid of being caught by La Migra, she had been in San Diego when she 
was young and single.  There were discos and attractions such as Sea World.  
Mike knew nothing about the city’s nightlife, but he was very familiar with the 
attractions from having gone there with his family.  Mike and Do?a Lisette 
compared their experiences in San Diego.  The fact that Mike went there with his 
parents seemed to set her at ease.

When Ruthie’s mother changed the topic to what was going on at the university, 
he was ready.  He talked about the hours of studying and backed up Ruthie’s 
statement that they stayed in the library until it closed.  He explained why they 
had to stay there so late, because they had to conduct research from volumes that 
could not be checked out.  She asked about the danger of a young woman being 
alone at such a late hour.  With no hesitation he responded:

“Of course it’s dangerous for a girl like Ruthie to be out by herself that late.  
That’s why I always take her back to her dorm and make sure she gets in OK.  For 
a guy it’s not so bad, so I drop her off first and then go to my own building.”

When the topic changed to religion, again Mike was ready.  He noticed Ruthie 
tensing up and fidgeting, but he ignored her.  He talked at length about going to 
church with his parents while growing up and about various experiences that he 
had with his church group.  He made himself sound much more religious than he 
really was, but he did not tell his host a single thing that was not true or that had 
not really happened to him.  

Mike could tell that Do?a Lisette was still suspicious of his family’s church, but 
the godless party-boy that she had been expecting was not the person sitting in 
front of her.  Mike was polite, serious, intelligent, and seemed to care for her 
daughter.

The issue of church bothered Do?a Lisette and she pressed Mike on why they 
were not attending services.  Mike apologized about that, saying that he was 
bothered by that lack in their lives as well, but what he wanted to do was return to 
attending services at his parents’ church.  He commented that it was a real shame 
that there was no decent church in Davenport.  When Ruthie’s mother chided him 
about not trying to find a church in Santa Cruz, he simply apologized and agreed 
that he needed to pay more attention to his relationship with the Lord.

Mike eased past the explosive topic of religion and started talking more about 
Ruthie and her life in college.  He talked about how they met because they were 
in the same class and how they got to know each other through talking about 
literature.  He talked about her studying and that was one thing about her that he 
admired, how studious and hardworking she was.  He compared her to the lazy 
rich girls he ticketed and talked up her kindness and dedication.

Ruthie was quiet as she watched Mike establish rapport with her mother.  He 
talked to her naturally and was neither intimidated nor condescending.  He was 
honest about everything he said.  Sometimes he distorted facts and events by 
taking them out of their context, but not once did he say anything false.  His 
handling of the conversation was very different from Ruthie’s habit of blatant 
lying and evasive answers.  

Mike was at an advantage because he felt more at ease talking to older people 
than he did talking to people of his own age group.  The difference in years and 
life experiences put enough distance between Mike and older individuals that he 
did not need to struggle talking about things such as popular culture that did not 
interest him.  His intellectual curiosity made him want to talk to people whose 
information and experiences differed from his own, from whom he could learn 
something or get a different perspective.  With a person such as his girlfriend’s 
mother it was easy for him to have such a conversation.  

The result of the morning’s meeting was what Ruthie had least expected, that her 
mother actually liked her boyfriend.  She opened up with him, telling him about 
some of the girl’s difficulties in school and the worries that she had over sending 
her off to college.  Ruthie was not pleased with the turn of the conversation, 
because Mike learned several details about her life that she really had not wanted 
him to know.

At noon Ruthie’s aunt and her cousin Rosa came over to her apartment to make 
their weekly trek to the nearby Salinas Mega-Mart.  Mike met two more of 
Ruthie’s relatives and had a chance to further ingratiate himself.  He shocked his 
girlfriend by agreeing to go shopping with the group when they asked if he and 
Ruthie wanted to join them.  For the next two hours he helped the women load 
their carts with heavier items and then helped them load the purchases into the 
back of their car.  He spent a lot of his time in the store talking to Ruthie’s cousin: 
describing his academic experiences in Chicago and California, making 
comparisons between the two universities, and giving her some basic advice on 
taking tests and writing term papers.

Ruthie was totally “weirded out”, as she always liked to say, by his behavior.  
Mike…setting foot in a Mega-Mart?  As they walked up and down the aisles, she 
could tell that he was repulsed by being there.  Later she would need to ask him 
why he agreed to accompany her relatives into the hated store.  

----------

They left Ruthie’s apartment in the late afternoon.  Ruthie hugged her mother 
good-bye and Mike kissed her on the cheek.  They made their way out of the 
complex and drove around Salinas, making a quick visit to the old downtown.  
Ruthie pointed out several places that she had known in high school and shared 
several more events of her life.  Before going back to Davenport they stopped at a 
local burrito place, where Ruthie often went with her relatives when she was still 
in high school.  

Ruthie’s feelings about the day were very mixed.  The first thing she wondered 
about was the Mega-Mart trip.  If Mike hated Mega-Mart so much, how could he 
agree to go there?  He responded that he could justify the trip because he was not 
spending any of his own money in the store.  There was no point in arguing 
because Ruthie’s relatives would go shopping at Mega-Mart whether he wanted 
them to or not.  In such a case, his own feelings were irrelevant.  Anyhow, his 
purpose that day was not to enlighten her relatives on the evils of Mega-Town 
Associates.  His purpose was to meet her family and to make her life as easy as 
possible by doing what was necessary to make a good impression on them.  As he 
put it:

“Different things matter at different times.  In Davenport I can worry about Mega-
Town all I want.  Right now what mattered was me getting along with your 
mom.”

“I ‘spose…”

Ruthie was grateful that Mike had given up his day to spend with her relatives, 
but she was uneasy with how quickly things with him had developed.  She was 
simultaneously impressed and worried by how easily he managed to ingratiate 
himself with three of her family members.  Like it or not, now he was indeed “her 
boyfriend”.  That was how the world saw him, and how he saw himself.

Mike showed a side of himself that Ruthie had not known about.  To get along 
with her mother, he managed to conceal a large portion of his beliefs and 
personality, showing only the part of himself that she would not find offensive.  
He had the ability to deceive through telling the truth, a talent that Ruthie did not 
have.  She could tell the truth or tell a lie (usually badly) but Mike’s subtle 
manipulation of facts to create false impressions was something she was 
incapable of doing.

----------

Mike had some concerns of his own that he really could not share with his 
girlfriend.  He knew the meeting Do?a Lisette had gone as well as he could have 
hoped, but Ruthie was right about her, she was not a likable person.  Mike liked 
Rosa, but as for those other two… He cringed at the thought of his parents 
meeting them as potential in-laws.  He knew that it was terrible to think of them 
in such terms, but they were so…Mexican…and so different from Ruthie.  He had 
known that, of course, but it was one thing to know about her relatives from a 
distance; it was another to actually see them up close.  

----------

As Mike and Ruthie drove back to Davenport, Lisette Montoya Burns 
accompanied her sister-in-law and her niece back to her brother’s place.  They 
organized the purchases for Thanksgiving, which was coming up the following 
week.  

When she got back to her apartment, Lisette took out her Bible and read some 
passages, making sure she would be ready for church the following day.  She 
spent some time in prayer before getting ready for bed.  Finally, she pulled out a 
photo album to take a look at Ruthie’s pictures.

There were pictures in that album from the time she was born until she was three.  
Then there was a gap of nine years.  The pictures did not start up again until the 
girl was 12.   Little Ruthie…she reflected…not so little anymore.  

It was because of Ruthie that Lisette’s last name was Burns.  She was married for 
thirteen years, but married in name only most of that time.  She had lived in 
Salinas, and her husband lived in Lincoln.  For the last nine years of their 
marriage they had no contact whatsoever, nor did Lisette have any contact with 
Ruthie.  Then, totally out the blue, she got a phone call from her husband.  

“I’m sending our daughter to live with you.  She’ll be flying into San Jose on 
Meg-Air Flight # 223 from Salt Lake City at 5:00.  Can you get someone out to 
the airport to pick her up?”

“I…I’ll send my brother to get her...”

“Good.  There’s divorce papers that’ll be coming with her.  If you want me to 
send you any child support, you’ll have to sign ‘em and send ‘em back.”

…and…that was the end of Lisette’s dysfunctional marriage with Ruthie’s father.  
Not that it really mattered, because they had not seen each other for nearly a 
decade.

----------

Lisette looked at Ruthie’s baby pictures and reflected on her ill-fated experience 
with love in San Diego.  She had been going out with a group of young Mexican 
women to some discos that also were frequented by Marines and sailors from the 
nearby Navy base.  Many of the military guys, the Marines especially, were 
Hispanic and spoke fluent Spanish.  One night she was with her group of friends 
when they hooked up with a group of sailors from an aircraft carrier.  There were 
a couple of white guys in the group, including a petty officer by the name of Jake 
Burns.  By that time Ruthie’s mother spoke just enough English that she could get 
by, and Petty Officer Burn’s shipmates could help out with translating when it 
was needed.  He was interesting and different from anyone she had ever met.  His 
blond hair fascinated her.

Jake liked to have fun and enjoyed taking Lisette to various places around San 
Diego.  For three months he splurged on her while he waited for his ship to sail.  
He never really planned on staying with her past his sailing date, and she had no 
real plans at all.  They were together for the moment.  He’d leave and she’d go 
back to trying to find a job and avoid being deported.  At that point her brother 
already had a job in Salinas and was waiting for her to join him.

The month before Petty Officer Burns was ready to ship out; Lisette realized she 
had a big problem.  She had missed her period.  She waited two weeks, hoping 
that her menstruation would miraculously come about, but nothing.  She bought a 
test kit and found out that, sure enough, she was pregnant.

When she approached Jake about the problem, his answer was simple: get an 
abortion.  She was so horrified by the suggestion that she actually slapped him.  
Get an abortion?  Are you crazy?  Do you want to murder our child?  Do you 
want me to go to Hell?  

They argued for a week as Jake’s sailing date rapidly approached.  Finally he 
decided that the easiest thing to do would be to give Lisette a marriage certificate 
so she could get military benefits for the baby.  He really didn’t care, because he 
was going to be out to sea anyway.  So, he took her to a local Justice of the Peace 
with a couple of his shipmates to serve as witnesses, then took her to the Navy 
base to get an ID as a spouse so she could see the military doctors.  From there he 
took her to DMV to get a state ID.  Lisette was not pleased with the brusque way 
Jake was treating her but at least, if nothing else, her legal situation was resolved 
and she no longer had to worry about La Migra.

Jake was gone more than a year.  While he was gone, Lisette had her daughter, 
who she wanted to call Luz Maria.  Jake overruled her and told her that he wanted 
the girl’s name to be Ruthie.  Worried about what was going to happen when Jake 
finally got back from his tour, she agreed.

When he got back, Jake decided that he wanted to stay with Lisette after-all.  He 
moved her and the baby into an apartment for the final six months of his contract 
with the Navy.  He became attached to Ruthie and attentive to his wife.  Lisette, 
however, was getting bored and anxiously waited for Jake to get out of the Navy 
so he could help her get a job.

When Ruthie was two, Jake finally left the service and moved his wife and 
daughter to Lincoln, where the marriage quickly deteriorated.  He had work lined 
up as a mechanic, but no job materialized for Lisette.  His friends and relatives 
totally cold-shouldered her.  He hooked up with some of his old friends from high 
school and started to go out drinking.  He insisted on leaving Ruthie with his 
mother during the days, because he did not want the child to grow up speaking 
Spanish.  Lisette was totally cut off from everything that was familiar to her.  
Even going to church didn’t work out, because at the time there were not many 
Hispanics in Lincoln and she definitely did not fit in with any of the white 
congregations.

Within six months Lisette had enough of Jake and Lincoln and wanted to join her 
brother in Salinas.  She wanted to take Ruthie, but there was no way either Jake or 
his mother would be willing to part with her.  She was under the impression that 
divorce was not an option, because if she got divorced, she’d be subject to 
deportation.  A recent INS round-up of illegal immigrants working at a nearby 
meat-packing plant drove home that point.  Finally she got on a bus and simply 
left.  Two days later she was in Salinas.  She moved in with her brother and his 
wife.  Within a month he helped her get a job.  A few months later she was in her 
own apartment.

Lisette’s mind was full of trauma and guilt as she started her life in Salinas.  The 
pastor of her church told her that she had lived in sin when partying around San 
Diego.  God had punished her with her unpleasant marriage and the loss of her 
daughter.  The only hope for her was to lead as upright a life as possible and to 
spend the rest of her mortal days serving the Lord.  She would pray to be reunited 
with her daughter, and maybe, if the Lord chose to bless her, at some point Ruthie 
would re-appear in her life.

Nine years later, Lisette’s prayers were answered.  Eight hours after receiving that 
phone call from her husband, the Meg-Air flight carrying the terrified 12-year old 
landed in the San Jose.  Lisette’s brother picked her up from the airport and 
brought her to Salinas.  

Yes, there were a lot of challenges and the girl had picked up bad influences in 
Jake’s house, but what mattered the Lord had spoken and forced him to release 
her.  Among other details in the divorce agreement was a line that gave Lisette 
full custody of Ruthie.  There was no mention about visitation.  She gladly signed 
the document and sent it back.  

Lisette celebrated by taking her daughter to church.  The girl would grow up 
serving the Lord.  She would see to that.  It was the least she could do to praise 
Him for returning Ruthie to her.  At that point the pictures in her photo album 
resumed…