she had put ruth 's card in the top left drawer of her desk , the one where she kept various odd lots of correspondence which would probably never be answered , and that had been the last time she 'd thought about her old roomie until now-ruth neary , who lusted to own a harley-davidson barn-burner but who had never been able to master any standard transmission , even the one on jessie 's tame old ford pinto ; ruth , who often got lost on the unh campus even after three years there ; ruth , who always cried when she forgot she was cooking something on the hotplate and burned it to a crisp .