Laverne Knows
"Laverne stood looking at her and after a second she folded her arms and very pointedly stuck her stomach out and began to sway back and forth" (O'Connor 73).
By this point, O'Connor has made it obvious that Ruby is pregnant. Previously O'Connor simply described her feeling sick and showed her relating the stroke of good fotune the palmist told Ruby she would have to the mother telling her child he was "Little Mister Good Fortune." They were subtle foreshadowings. Here, Laverne is sticking out her stomach and is described doing this a couple more times. Laverne now knows, despite whether or not the audience knows, that Ruby is pregnant. Also, if the audience knows about Ruby's pregnancy, they may not know that Laverne has suspicions. I thought that O'Connor described Laverne as sticking out her stomach to give the reader more clues about the pregnancy. However, in re-reading it, I noticed that by this point Laverne probably knows herself. Laverne first looked at Ruby and THEN stuck her stomach out. I think she was trying to lead Ruby to the conclusion that she is pregant herself rather than telling her, which would have been a bigger shock for Ruby and it was.
I think Ruby already knew she was pregnant, thus why her thoughts are occupied by her baby brother, and the little neighbor boy. I think Laverne just doesn’t want to come out and say it till Ruby says it herself.