Chapter 12 Summary

Ruth lays low for most of the fall of 1976. Toby catching her and Owney is unpleasant, but the reason that her father makes her feel unwelcome at home comes four days later, when Ruth forces Stan to eat dinner with her and then calls him a liar and a coward for never expressing an opinion about anything. He claims that nothing that she or her mother does affects him and that everything is determined by you-know-who. Ruth weeps after the fight at Rhonda's and stays with her through July, August, and early September, going home only when she knows that her father is out. She has nothing to do. Kitty too lives at Rhonda's, thrown out by Len, who takes up with desperate Florida Cobb. Kitty is badly upset, drinking all day and crying all night. She is violent when they try to...