Small Great Things: Chapter 22, Ruth Summary & Analysis

Ruth can feel the stares of everyone behind her as she sits at the defense table. Judge Thunder fortunately has a zero tolerance rule for interruptions, and many people sitting in the gallery are the church ladies from Mama's funeral. Minutes later, Odette begins her opening statement. She tells the story of Turk and Brit's experience at the hospital, and their "personal preferences" that led them to ask for Ruth to be taken off of Davis's case. Odette deems this a slight that Ruth couldn't stomach. She explains how Davis died, saying that Ruth just stood there. She calls Ruth a murderer and suggests that Ruth killed Davis to get back at Turk.

Kennedy rises to make her statement. She says that Turk blamed Ruth for Davis's death, but the evidence will show that it wouldn't have made any difference who was with Davis when he died—he had a medical condition that left him susceptible anyway. She implores the jury to not make Ruth a second innocent victim.

Corinne takes the stand. Ruth thinks that a year ago, she would've said that she and Corinne were close. Now, she realizes they were just default acquaintances. Odette asks Corinne about her job and about the morning that she was asked to take over Davis's care from Ruth. She says that Ruth was angry and stormed off, which isn't how Ruth remembers it. Corinne talks about how Davis seemed reasonably healthy but did have some trouble breastfeeding. She explains how she left Ruth with Davis while she was called away to a C-section, and Davis was dead when she returned. She does say that Ruth is a great nurse.

Kennedy takes over questioning. She brings up Marie's note in Davis's file that barred Ruth from caring for Davis and suggests that Corinne actually messed up twice over: she left Davis in the care of a nurse who couldn't care for him, and she wasn't there to save Davis when he stopped breathing. Ruth thinks of a dream she had last night. She was at Mama's funeral, but the coffin was full of dead babies.

Ruth explains that when Marie was hired, they were both nurses. They both applied for the charge nurse position and Ruth wasn't upset that Marie got it. On the stand, Marie talks about her conversation with Turk about taking Ruth off the case. She says that Ruth was offended but she didn't see Ruth again until two days later, when Ruth was left alone with Davis in the nursery. As Marie talks about Turk trying to save Davis himself, Ruth flashes back to the moment and feels like she's sinking.

Kennedy questions Marie about the kind of care Ruth gave to patients, and asked if she'd thought of the possibility that Ruth might have been forced to supervise Davis but not touch him. Kennedy points out that Marie never specified that Ruth was allowed to touch Davis in an emergency.

At the break, Kennedy offers to buy Ruth and Edison lunch. When Ruth refuses, Kennedy assures her that this was a good start. After Kennedy leaves, Edison and Ruth go get pizza. Ruth muses that a trial is just a mind game designed to make her wonder if she actually wanted to hurt Davis. Edison asks Ruth if Davis died like Marie said he did. Ruth says it was worse.

Later, Isaac Hager, the anesthesiologist, testifies. Odette asks him to describe the role of chest compressions in resuscitating an infant, and to talk about how Ruth performed them on Davis. Isaac notes that saving a life can look violent and says that Ruth was trying to save Davis's life.

During recess, Kennedy and Ruth sit in a small room together. Ruth notes that if she's cleared, she's thinking about starting over. She starts to tell Kennedy her secret, but Kennedy talks over her and suggests going back to school. Softly, Kennedy says that if the worst comes to pass, she'll get Ruth's sentence as short as possible. She also points out that Odette will have a hard time keeping the jury from hating Turk. Ruth realizes that Kennedy's next goal will be to make the jury hate Turk.

When Dr. Atkins takes the stand, she smiles at Ruth before turning to Odette. Dr. Atkins mentions the heart murmur, describes Davis's circumcision, and mentions Ruth's comment to sterilize Davis. When Kennedy takes over, she asks Dr. Atkins about how Ruth behaved during Davis's emergency and then asks about the newborn screening. Dr. Atkins notes that she hasn't seen Davis's results and they wouldn't have gotten them until Tuesday, since he was born on a Thursday. Then, Kennedy asks Dr. Atkins to describe MCADD and asks if fasting before a circumcision would’ve exacerbated the condition. It would have, he says, and Davis's blood sugar was dangerously low when they drew blood during his emergency. Kennedy enters Davis's newborn screening as evidence, and Dr. Atkins curses when she sees Davis's results.

Kennedy is excited at the end of the day, but Ruth can't stop thinking about Dr. Atkins's face when she saw Davis's test results. Ruth thinks that she's on trial for something she didn't do, but a baby still died tragically. Ruth uses the restroom before she and Edison leave, and she runs into Odette. Odette compliments Ruth on Kennedy's day, but insists that they'll lose. Angrily, Ruth says that both she and Odette are smart, professional African American women and she doesn't understand why Odette is out to get her. When Odette says she's doing her job, Ruth points out that nobody's telling her she can't.

The next morning, a snowstorm means that Ruth and Edison are five minutes late. Kennedy is upset, but Judge Thunder is late too since he got rear-ended. He crankily starts the day after complaining about his back. MacDougall testifies first. He tells Odette about knocking on Ruth's door. Ruth angrily starts to rise and tells Kennedy he's lying. MacDougall says that, afraid that Ruth was fleeing, his team broke down the door and was confronted by a "large black subject." He describes Ruth's interrogation and says it ended when Ruth didn't want to keep talking. He suggests that her silence meant it wasn't an accident. Judge Thunder strikes this comment from the record, but it worries Ruth.

Kennedy asks MacDougall why he showed up at Ruth's house at 3 am. He says it's normal and intended to disarm the suspect. He refuses to concede that Ruth may have been asleep and insists that they searched Ruth's home in case there was a weapon. When Kennedy asks about why they tackled Edison, he says that Edison looked large, angry, and black. Kennedy asks if he was also wearing a hoodie. At this, Judge Thunder calls Kennedy up to berate her and then adjourns court for the rest of the day.

When Edison and Ruth get home, they see a black car with a driver in front of their house. Christina steps out and explains that she's been in court for the last two days, camouflaged in ratty clothes. Ruth sends Edison inside and, with tears in her eyes, Christina says that she's Ruth's friend and she had no idea that things had happened like this. Ruth points out that Christina will never have to know. Christina says that when she was in college, she picked up a black hitchhiker on crutches. When she got home she told Mama, and was shocked when Mama angrily told her to never do that again. She knows now that Mama wasn't trying to protect Christina; she was trying to protect the black man. Ruth realizes that she's spent her life misinterpreting Christina and invites her inside.

The next day, Dr. Bill Binnie testifies. He's a medical examiner and explains the results of his autopsy. Davis had a heart murmur and low blood sugar, which is normal for a baby born to a mother with gestational diabetes. When asked if he can say how the baby died, Dr. Binnie says the question is complicated. Odette enters the autopsy photographs of Davis's bruised body and sets one up on an easel. Before she can ask questions, Brit shrieks that Ruth killed her baby. The bailiff shows Brit out and when the furor dies down, one juror bursts into tears. Kennedy curses.

Fifteen minutes later, Odette leads Dr. Binnie through all the photographs. Dr. Binnie explains that the cause of death was asphyxiation caused by low blood sugar. He also says he doesn't have enough information to say definitively whether the death was natural or a murder. When Kennedy takes over, she confirms that the bruising could've been the result of CPR. She then gives Dr. Binnie Davis's newborn screening results that show MCADD. He concedes that because of the undiagnosed MCADD and fasting before his circumcision, Davis was at a higher risk of death than a healthy baby.

Odette questions Dr. Binnie again. She confirms that the newborn screening doesn't actually diagnose the disorder, and it's possible Davis might not have had it. She suggests that Kennedy is just trying to make it look like Ruth didn't neglect and then intentionally harm Davis. That night, Edison heads out almost as soon as he gets home. After waiting for hours, Ruth puts her head down and thinks about the Kangaroo Suite at the hospital. It's a secluded room where the staff put parents who have lost their babies. When one of Ruth's patients loses a baby, she always takes handprints and footprints in plaster and calls a photographer.

Ruth's last patient to use the suite was Jiao. She had too much amniotic fluid throughout her pregnancy but wouldn't accept that there was a problem. Her baby was born via C-section and died soon after. Jiao refused to hold her baby, who was swollen and puffy from the fluid, for eight hours. Finally, Ruth helped her bathe the baby. Jiao held him and then gave him back to Ruth. Ruth cried all the way to the morgue.

Edison slips into the house and is surprised that Ruth is still awake. She tells him to be careful and that she might not be around much longer to care for him. She says that if she goes to jail, he needs to thrive. Edison slams into his bedroom, and Ruth thinks she knows why the Kangaroo suite is called that: a parent carries their child forever.