The Benefits of Being an Octopus

At home, Zoey and her family act fast, stuffing their things into black trash bags before Lenny gets home. Lenny owns the car, so Kara runs to the Pizza Pit to borrow Connor’s. The scenes are fast-paced and tense as they paint a searing picture of the fear, desperation, and determination it takes to escape an abuser.

Lenny gets home just as Zoey is throwing the final bags into the car. She struggles to attach Hector’s car seat as Lenny demands to know what’s going on. Kara makes an excuse that she has borrowed the car to take the trash to the dump. Lenny isn’t convinced, but they drive away before he can stop them.

Before arriving at Crystal’s apartment, Kara stops at the courthouse to file a protective order against Lenny. She brings an extra set of paperwork for Crystal and urges her to file one against Michael. Crystal demurs but takes the forms and puts them in her pocket.

Kara’s arrival at Crystal’s apartment isn’t sentimental. The women are still wary of each other and terse in their interactions. Fuchsia is out, and Kara leaves Zoey to settle the kids and Hector into the one-bedroom apartment while she returns Connor’s car. Now that Zoey and her family have moved out, the reality of living with seven people in a one-bedroom apartment begins to sink in. Fuchsia finds an extra mattress in the basement for Bryce and Aurora. She and Crystal sleep on one mattress, while Zoey, Kara, and Hector sleep together on another so that Bryce and Aurora can sleep together on their own.

At school, Matt Hubbard surprises Zoey by approaching her to apologize for his judgment about Silas. He praises Zoey’s powerful debate speech and confides that his mother wrote his student council president speech for him. The interaction bewilders Zoey, especially when Matt calls her “cool.” Matt tells her to come back to debate club because, unlike him, she doesn’t need her mother to write her speeches; she doesn’t even need to look at notes. He says that if he had her skills, he’d score more points in the debate tournament. As they talk, Zoey begins to see Matt in a new light: “I look at him. At his nicely combed hair. At his pleading brown eyes. At his complete cluelessness that somehow it all comes down to how many points you can score in a tournament” (159). She gently tells him about the difficult life experiences it takes to gain a perspective like hers and how imagining someone else’s situation might make him less likely to judge them.

After social studies class, Ms. Rochambeau follows up with Zoey about her comments during the debate. She wants to know if Zoey is safe and encourages her to come back to the debate club. Zoey assures her that she’s safe and tells Ms. Rochambeau that thanks to her mentorship, Zoey saw that someone was trying to discredit his opponent. Near tears, Ms. Rochambeau congratulates Zoey on her fortitude.

The reality of the difficult life that Zoey and her family face after escaping Lenny becomes clear. Bryce is still having nightmares, and the family still lives out of trash bags. Zoey plans to go to the dump that weekend to find Hector a broken ExerSaucer to keep him from crawling around the apartment, which hasn’t been babyproofed. Crystal can watch Hector for the hour between when Kara leaves for work (she must walk even further now) and when Zoey returns from school. Zoey still must heft Hector to the bus stop to pick up Bryce and Aurora, and they too have a longer walk to their new downtown residence.

Fuchsia drops off the paperwork that Crystal finally filled out to get a protective order against Michael. Kara buys yogurts for everyone and leaves a clean pile of laundry in the bedroom. These actions demonstrate that a life without Lenny and Michael allows the families to live on their own terms. That night, Zoey tells the kids a bedtime story—and this time, Fuchsia joins them.

After the kids fall asleep, Zoey vows to tell other, real stories, or as she calls them, “Things That Need To Be Said” (165). She has discovered the power of using her voice and decides to rejoin debate club, knowing that even though speaking up is scary, what she has to say is important.