I try to protect Ruby. Ruby corners me.

A family trip to the video. Mom pulls a copy of "Zodiac" off the shelf. "Is Zodiac any good?"

Ruby has seen the ads, she asks "What's Zodiac?"

Me: "A movie."

Ruby: "What's in about?"

Me: "It's about this guy that was around when Mom and I were little kids."

Ruby: "What about him? Who was he?"

Me, in a sheltering mood: "He would go around... scaring people."

Ruby (incredulous): "How? Little kids?"

Me: "No, grownups."

Ruby: "How did he scare grownups?"

Me: "He would sort of sneak on people and yell BOOGA!"

Ruby: "That's stupid. They made a whole movie out of some man yelling BOOGA!?"

Me: "He was quite scary, Ruby. "(This is where I lose the thread a bit.) "People were afraid to go outside, in case the Zodiac was walking around."

Ruby: "Why?"

Me: "People didn't want to pee their pants. Men started wearing Mumus so the pee wouldn't stain their pants."

Ruby: "Don't make up stuff."

Me: "He also wore a mask. He was scary, Ruby."

Ruby: "Like a dead guy mask, like bloody and stuff?"

Me: "No... eh... it was more squarish, like a grocery bag. And he drew a little cross on the front."

Ruby: "That's stupid. What a stupid movie."

**

Postscript:
Later, when we were discussing cannablism, Ruby mention in an off-hand way that the Zodiac was a killer. "He didn't make people pee, Dad."

I bet he did, actually.