Summary

This section begins with the author recalling how his mother used to vacuum at early hours in the morning when the rest of the family was asleep. “On those sleepless nights, she was usually content to be alone. To keep the peace. But on other nights, she needed to disturb all of us. So she’d plug in that old wheezing vacuum and slam and clunk around the living room. We lived in a small house, so there was no escape from the goddamn racket of her loneliness” (184). While other members of the family generally ignored her behavior, Alexie confronted her, often in a brash manner. One time he unplugged the vacuum, opened the door, and threw it into the dark, wanting to break it. It stayed intact, and his mother continued her late night practice, to which Alexie opted to ignore in...