Housekeeping

Ruthie remembers her grandfather in the water whenever she drinks water, and she remembers how the water stopped her mother’s breath. She thinks that when people drink from lakes, they think of mothers who lift their children above their heads as they go under, even though they likely know that eventually their children, too, will go under. Families, she believes, “will not be broken” (289). She narrates how Jesus fixed families when he returned Lazarus “to his mother” and gave the centenarian his daughter back (291).

“Sylvie [does] not want to lose” Ruthie, as she [does] not want her to turn into a memory (292). While they are together, Sylvie can allow herself to not pay much attention to Ruthie because of their intimacy. This would be broken if Ruthie were to go away, as Ruthie would magnify in importance. Ruthie thinks about her mother and what would have happened if she had merely come home after taking a drive to the lake. Ruthie and Lucille would have learned to take their mother for granted, Ruthie thinks. They would have watched her grow stranger in the ways that, in her view, all people grow stranger in the areas that they are strange.