Goodbye, Vitamin

Ruth and her father drive to campus and park in the visitors’ lot because his parking permit expired. He asks Ruth to renew his permit sticker for him as part of her duties. Howard introduces Theo to Ruth. They pretend not to know each other and shake hands. In class, Howard goes over what the course, “California History, Pre-European Contact to the Present,” will entail.

While Howard lectures, Ruth thinks about the fact that she dropped out of college to follow Joel to medical school in Connecticut. Ruth worked at a Discount Fabric Outlet for a time, and then Joel’s residency brought them back to San Francisco, where she began working as an ultrasound technician. Ruth’s parents do not know that she never graduated because she convinced them not to fly all that way to see her walk at graduation.

Howard leaves another page of his journal out on the kitchen table for Ruth to see. The entry details more recollections of Ruth’s childhood, including the time he had to remove a corn kernel from her nose.

Ruth and Bonnie visit Bonnie’s boyfriend, Vince. Ruth internally remarks on Vince’s strangeness but claims that she has stopped judging her friend’s boyfriends.