“What? From where?”
Ruby looked at the pickup bed. It was nearly bottomed out from hauling the load.
Em said, “This might best be a don’t-ask-don’t-tell moment, if you catch my drift.”
As Ruby thought through all the places where Em could have found this much change, it hit her. The fountain. The fountain next to Penney’s where she had wished for a trust fund. People had been tossing change into it since Oz built the Biomall. Oz didn’t think the pennies were worth fishing out of the water, so they’d been piling up since 1990. Em had loaded down her pick-up with buckets of dreams, dreams that Em had officially repossessed.
Ruby smiled at Em. With a wink, she said, “Why thank you, Em! You must have been saving up your change for quite some time.”
“I’m nothing if not resourceful.” Em smiled sweetly. Her black T-shirt and camo pants were dripping as she said it. Em appeared to approach fountain looting like a SEAL team operative.
Ruby looked at Noel and said, “Honey, you wanna drive down to the bank and deposit this with me?”
“Why sure, sweetie.”
Ruby grabbed her purse and slipped on Estelle’s sequined house slippers. “I’m ready.”
Auntie Em, Noel, and Ruby crowded into Em’s bottomed-out, beater pickup and drove to Bank of the West.
Em added, “Why don’t we swing by and pick up some lattes and cheesecake too. I reckon it’s gonna take a while for the bank to sort all this change.”
While they sat in the bank lobby, Ruby raised her latte and said, “I propose a toast. To Oz, for funding his corporation’s own demise.”
Behind them, the fountain coins clanked into piles as the machine sorted them. The hollow clanking of unrealized dreams. Dreams that probably never came true. Most of them were probably desperate I-hope-I-win-the-lottery dreams like her own, the dreams of people who’d just about given up. Ruby sat up straighter. Then and there, she decided she would use that money to empower someone just like herself, someone with a stupid dream, someone who could probably think of a better dream if they tried. And she would take down Ozcorp for Estelle.
She sank into the bank lobby loveseat with a warm feeling of contentment. She had thrown back the corporate veil and could see that Destinee was calling the shots. Whatever Enron-style, Tanya Harding bullshit Destinee pulled—in the largest glass mall on the planet, mind you—Ruby would be watching. Even better, she had a pick-up full of money to fund her legal assault and some good friends to photocopy papers and whatnot. The shareholder’s derivative suit might not be the end of the story, but it was the next battle and she didn’t intend on losing.
Noel must not have been thinking about derivative suits. He leaned over and kissed Ruby deeply. It was the kind of kiss that radiated from her lips to her fingertips and filled her with desire and happiness all at once. Everything in that moment felt right, except the location.
Em yelled, “Get a room, you two! We’re at the friggin’ bank.”
Noel gave Em the finger while still kissing Ruby.
“Better watch it, pretty boy. Politicians can’t do that sort of thing.”
He came up for air long enough to say, “Not running for office anymore, Em. I’m gonna be a farmer. So’s Ruby.”
Em began to laugh so hard that she snorted iced latte through her nose. “I can’t wait to see that.”
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Acknowledgments
I started writing this book so long ago, the list of people I should thank is ridiculously long. Mostly, I want to thank my husband who has provided unwavering support. I wrote most of this book while he was at Home Depot with the kids, or putting them to bed without my help. Thanks to my kids. They put up with me missing bedtime countless nights and are still proud of me for writing a book, at least so far.
Thanks to my parents who provided me with a never-ending pile of books during my childhood and bottomless encouragement. I hope I can provide my kids with half as much love and support. Thanks to my sister-in-law, Katie, for reading the first draft of this book and laughing at it instead of me. Thank you to my brother, Colin, for brainstorming on all your coffee breaks.
Thanks to my writing friends who read and commented on the manuscript in all of its stages and offered support: Carol Pavliska, Roselle Kaes, Kristi Belcamino, Matt Beehr, Cristina Pippa, Sarah Henning, Joy Callaway, Brianna Shrum, Alison Bliss, and Alice Bedard-Voorhees. The book would not be readable without your help. It wouldn’t make any sense at all actually.
Thanks to Alison Wagenknecht, MD for providing a real medical consult for Ruby’s fake finger injury.
Thanks to Alex Jergensen for making an awesome website.
Thanks to Liz Penney for pulling Ruby out of the slush pile and thank you to my editor, Alycia Tornetta, for making it a better book.
Last but not least, thank you to my readers.
About the Author
Shortly after graduating from law school, Samantha had three children and began writing novels. She never looked back, though she suspects her husband has. Ruby’s Misadventures with Reality is her first book, though hopefully not her last. She lives in Minnesota with her family. Connect with her at www.sambohrman.com or on Facebook and Twitter.
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