Family Pictures: Family Code Summary

Many things in the Mulvaney family were coded. Codes included the way they called each other by nicknames, such as Button for Marianne, Ranger for Judd, Mule for Mike Jr., and Curley for Michael Sr. Their conversations were also coded. When Mom or Dad wanted to discipline a child, they would often speak through the animals, and the children were to respond to the animal. However, the afternoon after coming home from the prom, when Corrine asks feathers, the canary in the family kitchen, why Marianne did not go to church that morning, Marianne breaks the code by responding how unfair it is to keep a bird in a cage.

This is the first time the code is ever broken in the Mulvaney home, and Judd adds at the end of the chapter that it is broken...