Rubyfruit Jungle Read online

  OUT

  Mother was sitting in her green stuffed rocking chair when I walked through the door. “You can turn around and walk right out. I know everything that went on up there, the dean of women called me up. You just turn your ass around and get out.”

  “Mom, you only know what they told you.”

  “I know you let your ass run away with your head, that’s what I know. A queer, I raised a queer, that’s what I know. You’re lower than them dirty fruit pickers in the groves, you know that?”

  “Mom, you don’t understand anything. Why don’t you let me tell my side of it?”

  “I don’t want to hear nothing you can say. You always were a bad one. Go on and get outa here. I don’t want you. Why the hell you even bother to come back here?”

  “Because you’re the only family I got. Where else am I gonna go?”

  “That’s your problem, smart-pants. You’ll have no friends and you got no family. Let’s see how far you get, you little snot-nose. You thought you’d go to college and be better than me. You thought you’d go mix with the rich. And you still think you’re dandy, don’t you? Even being a stinking queer don’t shake you none. Well, I hope I live to see the day you put your tail between your legs. I’ll laugh right in your face.”

  “Then you’d better live to see me dead.” I picked up my suitcase by the door and walked out into the cool night air. I had $14.61 in my jeans. That wouldn’t get me half to New York City. And that’s where I was going. There are so many queers in New York that one more wouldn’t rock the boat.

  This edition contains the complete text of the original hardcover edition.

  NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED.

  RUBYFRUIT JUNGLE

  A Bantam Book / published by arrangement with the author

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Daughters Publishing Company edition published 1973

  Bantam edition / September 1977

  Parts of this book have appeared in the AMAZON QUARTERLY

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 1973 by Rita Mae Brown.

  Interior artwork designed by Loretta Li.

  Author photo copyright © 1988 by Peter Cunningham.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  For information address: Bantam Books.

  ISBN 0-553-27886-X

  ebook ISBN 978-0-8041-5276-1

  Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada

  Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, New York, New York.

  v3.1

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Part I Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Part II Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Part III Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Part IV Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Other Books by This Author

  About the Author

  No one remembers her beginnings. Mothers and aunts tell us about infancy and early childhood, hoping we won’t forget the past when they had total control over our lives and secretly praying that because of it, we’ll include them in our future.

  I didn’t know anything about my own beginnings until I was seven years old, living in Coffee Hollow, a rural dot outside of York, Pennsylvania. A dirt road connected tarpapered houses filled with smear-faced kids and the air was always thick with the smell of coffee beans freshly ground in the small shop that gave the place its name. One of those smear-faced kids was Brockhurst Detwiler, Broccoli for short. It was through him that I learned I was a bastard. Broccoli didn’t know I was a bastard but he and I struck a bargain that cost me my ignorance.

  One crisp September day Broccoli and I were on our way home from Violet Hill Elementary School.

  “Hey, Molly, I gotta take a leak, wanna see me?”

  “Sure, Broc.”

  He stepped behind the bushes and pulled down his zipper with a flourish.

  “Broccoli, what’s all that skin hanging around your dick?”

  “My mom says I haven’t had it cut up yet.”

  “Whaddaya mean, cut up?”

  “She says that some people get this operation and the skin comes off and it has somethin’ to do with Jesus.”

  “Well, I’m glad no one’s gonna cut up on me.”

  “That’s what you think. My Aunt Louise got her tit cut off.”

  “I ain’t got tits.”

  “You will. You’ll get big floppy ones just like my mom. They hang down below her waist and wobble when she walks.”

  “Not me, I ain’t gonna look like that.”

  “Oh yes you are. All girls look like that.”

  “You shut up or I’ll knock your lips down your throat, Broccoli Detwiler.”

  “I’ll shut up if you don’t tell anyone I showed you my thing.”

  “What’s there to tell? All you got is a wad of pink wrinkles hangin’ around it. It’s ugly.”

  “It is not ugly.”

  “Ha. It looks awful. You think it’s not ugly because it’s yours. No one else has a dick like that. My cousin Leroy, Ted, no one. I bet you got the only one in the world. We oughta make some money off it.”

  “Money? How we gonna make money off my dick?”

  “After school we can take the kids back here and show you off, and we charge a nickel a piece.”

  “No. I ain’t showing people my thing if they’re gonna laugh at it.”

  “Look, Broc, money is money. What do you care if they laugh? You’ll have money then you can laugh at them. And we split it fifty-fifty.”

  The next day during recess I spread the news. Broccoli was keeping his mouth shut. I was afraid he’d chicken out but he came through. After school about eleven of us hurried out to the woods between school and the coffee shop and there Broc revealed himself. He was a big hit. Most of the girls had never even seen a regular dick and Broccoli’s was so disgusting they shrieked with pleasure. Broc looked a little green around the edges, but he bravely kept it hanging out until everyone had a good look. We were fifty-five cents richer.

  Word spread through the other grades, and for about a week after that, Broccoli and I had a thriving business. I bought red licorice and handed it out to all my friends. Money was power. The more red licorice you had, the more friends you had. Leroy, my cousin, tried to horn in on the business by showing himself off, but he flopped because he didn’t have skin on him. To make him feel better, I gave him fifteen cents out of every day’s earnings.

  Nancy Cahill came every day after school to look at Broccoli, billed as the “strangest dick in the world.” Once she waited until everyone else had left. Nancy was all freckles and rosary beads. She giggled every time she saw Broccoli and on that day she asked if she could touch him. Broccoli stupidly said yes. Nancy grabbed him and gave a squeal.

  “Okay, okay, Nancy, that’s enough. You might wear him out and we have other customers to satisfy.” That took the wind out of her and she went home. “Look, Broccoli, what’s the big idea
of letting Nancy touch you for free? That ought to be worth at least a dime. We oughta let kids do it for a dime and Nancy can play for free when everyone goes home if you want her to.”

  “Deal.”

  This new twist drew half the school into the woods. Everything was fine until Earl Stambach ratted on us to Miss Martin, the teacher. Miss Martin contacted Carrie and Broccoli’s mother and it was all over.

  When I got home that night I didn’t even get through the door when Carrie yells, “Molly, come in here right this minute.” The tone in her voice told me I was up for getting strapped.

  “I’m coming, Mom.”

  “What’s this I hear about you out in the woods playing with Brockhurst Detwiler’s peter? Don’t lie to me now, Earl told Miss Martin you’re out there every night.”

  “Not me, Mom, I never played with him.” Which was true.

  “Don’t lie to me, you big-mouthed brat. I know you were out there jerking that dimwit off. And in front of all the other brats in the Hollow.”

  “No, Mom, honest, I didn’t do that.” There was no use telling her what I really did. She wouldn’t have believed me. Carrie assumed all children lied.

  “You shamed me in front of all the neighbors, and I’ve got a good mind to throw you outa this house. You and your high and mighty ways, sailing in the house and out the house as you damn well please. You reading them books and puttin’ on airs. You’re a fine one to be snotty. Miss Ups, out there in the woods playing with his old dong. Well, I got news for you, you little shitass, you think you’re so smart. You ain’t so fine as you think you are, and you ain’t mine neither. And I don’t want you now that I know what you’re about. Wanna know who you are, smartypants? You’re Ruby Drollinger’s bastard, that’s who you are. Now let’s see you put your nose in the air.”

  “Who’s Ruby Drollinger?”

  “Your real mother, that’s who and she was a slut, you hear me, Miss Molly? A common, dirty slut who’d lay with a dog if it shook its ass right.”

  “I don’t care. It makes no difference where I came from. I’m here, ain’t I?”

  “It makes all the difference in the world. Them that’s born in wedlock are blessed by the Lord. Them that’s born out of wedlock are cursed as bastards. So there.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Well, you oughta care, you horse’s ass. Just see how far all your pretty ways and books get you when you go out and people find out you’re a bastard. And you act like one Blood’s thicker than water and yours tells. Bullheaded like Ruby and out there in the woods jerking off that Detwiler idiot. Bastard!”

  Carrie was red in the face and her veins were popping out of her neck. She looked like a one-woman horror movie and she was thumping the table and thumping me. She grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me like a dog shakes a rag doll. “Snot-nosed, bitch of a bastard. Living in my house, under my roof. You’d be dead in that orphanage if I hadn’t gotten you out and nursed you round the clock. You come here and eat the food, keep me runnin’ after you and then go out and shame me. You better straighten up, girl, or I’ll throw you back where you came from—the gutter.”

  “Take your hands off me. If you ain’t my real mother then you just take your goddamned hands off me.” I ran out the door and tore all the way over the wheat fields up to the woods. The sun had gone down, and there was one finger of rose left in the sky.

  So what, so what I’m a bastard. I don’t care. She’s trying to scare me. She’s always trying to throw some fear in me. The hell with her and the hell with anyone else if it makes a difference to them. Goddamn Broccoli Detwiler and his ugly dick anyway. He got me in this mess and just when we’re making money this has to happen. I’m gonna get Earl Stambach and lay him out to whaleshit if it’s the last thing I do. Yeah, then Mom will rip me for that. I wonder who else knows I’m a bastard. I bet Mouth knows and if Florence the Megaphone Mouth knows, the whole world knows. I bet they’re all sittin’ on it like hens. Well, I ain’t going back into that house for them to laugh at me and look at me like I’m a freak. I’m staying out here in these woods and I’m gonna kill Earl. Shit, I wonder if ole Broc got it. He’ll tell I put him up to it and skin out. Coward. Anyone with a dick like that’s gotta be chickenshit anyway. I wonder if any of the kids know. I can face Mouth and Mom but not the gang. Well, if it makes a difference to them, the hell with them, too. I can’t see why it’s such a big deal. Who cares how you get here? I don’t care. I really don’t care. I got myself born, that’s what counts. I’m here. Boy, ole Mom was really roaring, she was ripped, just ripped. I’m not going back there. I’m not going back to where it makes a difference and she’ll throw it in my face from now on out. Look how she throws in my face how I kicked Grandma Bolt’s shins when I was five. I’m staying in these woods. I can live off nuts and berries, except I don’t like berries, they got ticks on them. I can just live off nuts, I guess. Maybe kill rabbits, yeah, but Ted told me rabbits are full of worms. Worms, yuk, I’m not eating worms. I’ll stay out here in these woods and starve, that’s what I’ll do. Then Mom will feel sorry about how she yelled at me and made a big deal out of the way I was born. And calling my real mother a slut—I wonder what my real mother looks like. Maybe I look like someone. I don’t look like anyone in our house, none of the Bolts nor Wiegenlieds, none of them. They all have extra white skin and gray eyes. German, they’re all German. And don’t Carrie make noise about that. How anyone else is bad, Wops and Jews and the rest of the entire world. That’s why she hates me. I bet my mother wasn’t German. My mother couldn’t have cared about me very much if she left me with Carrie. Did I do something wrong way back then? Why would she leave me like that? Now, maybe now she could leave me after showing off Broccoli’s dick but when I was a little baby how could I have done anything wrong? I wish I’d never heard any of this. I wish Carrie Bolt would drop down dead. That’s exactly what I wish. I’m not going back there.

  Night drew around the woods and little unseen animals burrowed in the dark. There was no moon. The black filled my nostrils and the air was full of little noises, weird sounds. A chill came up off the old fishpond down by the pine trees. I couldn’t find any nuts either, it was too dark. All I found was a spider’s nest. The spider’s nest did it. I decided to go back to the house but only until I was old enough to get a job so I could leave that dump. Stumbling, I felt my way home and opened the torn screen door. No one was waiting up for me. They’d all gone to bed.

  Leroy sat in the middle of the potato patch picking a tick off his navel. He looked like Baby Huey in the comics and he was about as smart, but Leroy was my cousin and in a dumb way I loved him. We’d been sent out there to get potato bugs, but the sun was high and we were both tired of our chores. The grown-up women were in the house, and the men were off working. That was the summer of 1956, and we were in such bad shape that we had to live with the Denmans in Shiloh. I didn’t know we were in bad shape; besides I liked being out there with Leroy, Ted and all the animals.

  Leroy was eleven, same age as me. He was the same height only fat; I was skinny. Ted, Leroy’s brother, was thirteen and his voice was changing. Ted worked down at the Esso station so Leroy and I were stuck with the potato bugs.

  “Molly, I don’t wanna pick bugs no more. We got two jars full, let’s go on down to Mrs. Hershener’s and get a soda.”

  “Okay, but we got to go down by the gully where Ted wrecked the tractor or my mom will see us and make us get back to work.” We crawled through the gully, past the rusty tractor and out the drainpipe to the other side of the dirt road. Then we ran all the way down to Mrs. Hershener’s tiny store which had a faded Nehi soda sign with a thermometer on it tacked to the door.

  “Well, it’s Leroy and Molly. You children been helping your mothers up there on the hill?”

  “Oh yes, Mrs. Hershener,” Leroy droned, “we spent this whole day picking potato bugs so the potatoes will grow right.”

  “Now aren’t you just sweet. Here, how about a chocolate T
astycake for each of you.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Hershener”—in unison.

  “Can I get a scoop of raspberry ice cream for a nickel?” I grabbed my ice cream and walked out into the June sunshine. Leroy strolled out with a fudge ripple and we sat on the worn, flat wood planks of the porch. I spied an empty Sunmaid raisin box, nearly perfect except the top was torn, lying there in the irridescent tarpaper shavings in front of the store.

  “What you want that for?”

  “I got plans for this, you wait and see.”

  “Come on, Moll, tell me and I’ll help you.”

  “Can’t tell you now, here comes Barbara Spangenthau and you know how she is.”

  “Yeah, right, gotta be a secret.”

  “Hi, Barbara, watch you doin?”

  Barbara mumbled something about a loaf of bread and disappeared inside. Barbara was Jewish and Carrie was forever telling Leroy and me to keep away from her. She needn’t have bothered. No one wanted to go near Barbara Spangenthau because she always had her hand in her pants playing with herself and worse, she stank. Until I was fifteen I thought that being Jewish meant you walked around with your hand in your pants.

  Barbara rolled out of the store. She was even fatter than Leroy; her arms full of Fishel’s bread, she started down the footpath with all the honeysuckles.

  “Hey Barbara, you seen Earl Stambach today?”

  “He was down by the pond. Why?”

  “Cause I got a present for him. You see him you tell him I’m lookin’ for him, hear?”

  Barbara, filled with importance of her message, trotted down the road. Since she lived closest to the Stambachs, there was a good chance she’d deliver it.

  “What you want to give Earl Stambach a present for? I thought you hated him since forever.”

  “I do hate him, and the present I got for him is something very special. You want to come with me while I get it?”

  Leroy fell over himself in enthusiasm, and he trailed me back over the fields like a duck after its mother, all the way babbling about what the present’s gonna be. We went into the cool woods and I searched the ground. Leroy was looking at the ground too, although he didn’t know what he was looking for.