LOCK AND KEY

Warning: There are a few explicit words and mentions of drugs.

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SUMMARY

When Ruby and her older sister Cora were growing up, their parents got divorced. At first, their dad wanted to do the right thing by offering child support, but their mom was too angry at him that she stubbornly refused his help and told Ruby and Cora that he had completely abandoned them.

Since then, Ruby’s and Cora’s mom has had a history of bad relationships and a history with drugs and alcohol. Sometimes, if Ruby or Cora made too much noise or made too much of a mess or gave the wrong answers to questions that seemed to have no right ones, she would take out her frustration on them by yelling and sometimes even hitting them. During these times, Cora did her best to protect Ruby.

“As my mother approached, annoyed and usually spoiling for a fight, my sister would always step in front of me. Back then, she was at least a head taller, and I remembered this so well, the sudden shift in my perspective, the view going from something scary to something not. Of course, I knew my mother was still coming toward me, but it was always Cora I kept my eyes on: her dark hair, the sharp angles of her shoulder blades, the way, when things were really bad, she’d reach her hand back to find mine, closing her fingers around it. Then she’d just stand there, as my mother appeared, ready to take the brunt of whatever came next, like the bow of a boat crashing right into a huge wave and breaking it into nothing but water” (57).

When Cora left for college, she tried to stay in contact with Ruby, but doing so was difficult when Ruby and her mom kept moving (due to bouncing from job to job). It didn’t help that sometimes their mom provided false addresses on records. But when Cora got engaged to Jamie, she went through a huge hassle to track them down. She personally handed their mom a wedding invitation and made her promise to give the invitation to Ruby. However, their mom never actually passed the info along to Ruby, continuing to spin the tale that Cora had abandoned them.

“She never asked to speak to my mother, and my mom never once picked up when she called. It was as if their relationship had been a business arrangement, bound by contract, and now that contract had expired. At least that was the way I looked at it, until we moved a few weeks later and my sister stopped calling altogether. Then I realized that deep down in the fine print, my name had been on it as well” (61).

Eight months before Ruby turned 18, her mom abandoned her, taking off who knows where. (Maybe she was afraid that Ruby was going to abandon her, so she left Ruby before Ruby could leave her?). Later, she is discovered passed out drunk in a hotel by a maid and gets placed in rehab.

In the meantime, Ruby planned to get by on her own in their yellow house for the next few months. She goes to school as usual and cooks dinner for herself, despite not having working heat or running water in the kitchen. When the landlords visit and discover that a minor is living by herself in a poor condition, they turn Ruby into social services, who then contacts Cora (who is now living with her millionaire CEO husband, Jamie, and their cute doggie, Roscoe). Cora now works as a lawyer to help even more people like Ruby.

While staying at Cora’s and Jamie’s house, Ruby learns various lessons (such as that everybody has their own struggles, so it’s ok to ask for help sometimes).

Back

LESSONS

Just because something is lost doesn’t mean that it can’t be found.

Ruby and her mom used to work together at Commercial Courier, where they returned lost luggage to people.

“There was also something reassuring about working for Commercial, almost hopeful. Like things that were lost could be found again. As we drove away, I always tried to imagine what it would be like to open your door to find something you had given up on. Maybe it had seen places you never had, been rerouted and passed through so many strange hands, but still somehow found its way back to you, all before the day even began” (34-35).

“It’s a lot easier to be lost than found. It’s the reason we’re always searching, and rarely discovered -- so many locks, not enough keys” (365).

Ruby wears a chain necklace with a key on it (since she had gotten tired of losing the house key when she lived at the yellow house). Even though this was out of functionality, this can also be a fashion statement that symbolizes opportunities. However, in the end, Ruby drops her chain necklace in a pond since she has better opportunities lined up than she ever could have imagined (rather than going back to the yellow house).

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Throughout the book, many different people have their own struggles, and it takes most of them some time before they admit to needing help.

Ruby was initially insistent on taking the bus to school even though Cora's next door neighbor (Nate) goes to the same high school as her. She didn’t want to be indebted to someone, even though Nate was the one to offer the ride and Jamie offered to chip in for gas. Only after sleeping in does she realize that it just makes more sense to agree to the carpool.

Ruby didn’t want to ask nerdy Gervais for calculus help, but when she finally did, she ended up getting a 91% on her big calculus exam!

Cora had been struggling for months to bear a child. She eventually went to a specialist and took some pharmaceutical drugs that are supposed to help with fertility. She ended up testing positive at the end!

Roscoe the dog used to struggle with potty training, but eventually he learned what to do. However, he’s still afraid of ovens when they’re on, but a behavioral therapist may be able to help with that.

Harriet founded her own jewelry business and has always insisted on it being a one-woman operation. However, when she finally hired Ruby (after six months of turning down other applicants), she realized how much of a relief it is to have someone help with even the small things, like organizing inventory or tending to customers.

Nate and his dad run a business called Rest Assured, doing everything from running errands to icing cupcakes to make life easier for people with busy schedules. However, Nate has been hiding the fact that his dad is abusive and takes his frustrations out on him. Nate had planned on sticking it out for the next few months until he turns 18, but once he gets marks on his face, he knows that he can’t hide it anymore. Once Nate finally becomes open to the idea, Ruby asks Cora to help make arrangements for him to live with his mom in Florida instead for the time being.

“Accepting help doesn’t have to mean giving up control” (183).

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What mentality do we subscribe to?

Do we follow Ruby’s mentality, where she always expects the worst so that she’s never disappointed? Harriet used to believe this. She didn’t want to risk relationships not working out, so she always declined them. However, in the end, she finally agrees to a date with the vitamin guy, who works at the kiosk next to hers.

“Risk is just part of relationships. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t” (307).

Do we follow Nate’s sweatshirt’s motto of “You swim” (which is better than “You sink”)?

Do we try to get better at things that we are currently bad at, in hopes that we’ll get better? Olivia’s cousin Laney was insistent on training for a 5K event even though stank at running and often called Olivia to pick her up at the 2-mile mark. However, at the end, Laney was happy to cross the finish line (even though the race was technically over by then and Olivia and Ruby were the only ones cheering for her).

“‘You have to admit, it’s kind of impressive.’ // Olivia harrumphed. ‘What is? Total denial?’ // ‘Total commitment,’ I said. ‘You know, the idea of discovering something that, for all intents and purposes, goes against your abilities, and yet still deciding to do it anyway. That takes guts” (310).

“When she finally finished a few minutes later, it was hard to tell if she was even aware that the crowds had thinned, the clock was off and the announcer didn’t even call her time. But I do know that it was Olivia she turned to look for first, Olivia she threw her arms around and hugged tight, as that banner flapped overhead. Watching them, I thought again of how we can’t expect everybody to be there for us, all at once. So it’s a lucky thing that really, all you need is someone” (400).

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What makes up a “family”?

Family can (but not always) be people who truly care about you and make sure that you’re never alone. For example, at Ruby’s request, Olivia once dropped her off at her old high school to drink alcohol and smoke with one of her old “friends”. However, when Ruby passes out, that “friend” leaves her. It’s a good thing that Olivia told Nate where Ruby was and that Nate wanted to check to make sure she was ok.

“Friends don’t leave you alone in the woods. Friends are the ones who come and take you out” (222).

“Family isn’t something that’s supposed to be static or set. People marry in, divorce out. They’re born, they die. It’s always evolving, turning into something else. Even that picture of Jamie’s family was only the true representation for that one day. By the next, something had probably changed. It had to” (287).

“There are a lot of people in the world. No one ever sees everything the same way you do; it just doesn’t happen. So when you find one person who gets a couple of things, especially if they’re important ones… you might as well hold on to them” (312).

“What is family? They were the people who claimed you. In good, in bad, in parts or in whole, they were the ones who showed up, who stayed in there, regardless. It wasn’t just about blood relations or shared chromosomes, but something wider, bigger. Cora was right -- we had many families over time. Our family of origin, the family we created, as well as the groups you moved through while all of this was happening: friends, lovers, sometimes even strangers. None of them were perfect, and we couldn’t expect them to be. You couldn’t make any one person your world. The trick was to take what each could give you and build a world from it” (400).