Lucky Broken Girl

Ruthie goes home after a week in the hospital. Two ambulance attendants, Bobbie and Clay, treat her kindly. They arrive at the apartment building with the siren on, drawing the attention of all the neighborhood children. They crowd around demanding to see the cast, and Lily (Ruthie’s cousin) almost pulls the sheet and blanket away. Ruthie panics and screams, as she cannot wear underwear: “I will die of embarrassment if they see me naked” (59). Bobbie shoos them away.

Up in her room, Clay and Bobbie get Ruthie settled in her bed; she is glad to see her own marigold-decorated sheets. Bobbie tells her she must lie still in one place; Mami and Papi can flip her from back to stomach with the pole, but no other mobility is allowed. Clay and Bobbie will return when it's time to change the cast. Izzie offers a cookie to Ruthie, but Mami says no; Ruthie cannot gain too much weight inside the cast. Ruthie tells Izzie to leave the room so that she can relieve herself; Mami brings the bedpan, hoists her up to slide the pan into place, then returns to collect the bedpan and Ruthie’s used toilet tissue: “Just the other day, I felt so grown up in my go-go boots.