Small Great Things

As the trial is about to begin, Ruth goes into Edison’s room to tell him they’ll be late if he doesn’t hurry. He tells her he doesn’t want to go. Ruth thinks about how he’s been skipping school and moody, and pleads with him that Kennedy says “someone who’s seen as maternal is harder to picture as a murderer” (324). He asks her why she doesn’t just leave, and she responds in anger, saying, “your wish might just come true” (325). They make up, and Edison says he doesn’t want to go because “I don’t think I can listen to what they say about you” (325). Ruth finally convinces him, and they leave.

Ruth thinks back to the previous night, when Kennedy had dropped by to share what she had found about MCADD. Ruth begins to cry, worried about having lied to Kennedy about not having touched Davis. She thinks about how at first it was “because [Ruth] didn’t know if [she] could trust [Kennedy], or how the truth would reflect on [Ruth’s] case. But now, [Ruth] couldn’t tell her because [she] was ashamed to have ever lied in the first place” (326). Then she thinks about how Davis was doomed from the beginning, no matter what had happened: “It’s so…arbitrary” (326).