Small Steps

The lyrics of all Kaira’s songs are relevant to Armpit in some way (e.g., “Angry Young Man” [116]), but the song “Ride” is particularly significant. The chorus becomes a motif that runs through the book. Armpit hears this song on the radio at his work in Chapter 1, when Armpit meets Cherry Lane for the first time. The lyrics foreshadow events that happen to each character: X-Ray takes Armpit for a ride with the ticket-scalping scheme; Armpit takes Ginny for the ride of her life at Kaira’s concert; Kaira takes Armpit to places he has never been and vice versa; and, none of the main characters will ever “be the same again” as the story unfolds. This song becomes Ginny and Armpit’s favorite, representing their joyful and adventurous friendship. Armpit plays on these lyrics when he returns Kaira’s letter to her hotel room, thanking Kaira for “the ride” and telling her “I’ll never be the same again” (242). He says it as a joke, but her lack of response causes him to wait a moment giving Kaira enough time to pull down the lamp and alert him to the attack.

Coo is a “sort of bunny creature [with] arms and legs like a person but [with] bunny ears” (45), who (according to Ginny) suffers from leukemia. Ginny has had Coo her whole life, and turns to him for “comfort, courage, and confidence” (63) when her cerebral palsy gets difficult to bear. Coo symbolizes Ginny’s own quiet strength and bravery because Coo, like Ginny, is suffering himself. When Armpit takes Coo to school, he is stopped by the car full of older kids who mock him. Rather than surrender Coo, Armpit realizes “[h]e’d fight all of them if he had to, before giving Coo up” (62), mirroring the loyalty and strength for which that Coo stands. Furthermore, when the youths call Ginny a “little white retard” (62), Armpit—still holding Coo—shuts them down with Ginny’s explanation of cerebral palsy. Coo gives Armpit Ginny’s own strength and bravery to respond to the taunts in a mature way, so he can de-escalate the situation calmly instead of allowing the occupants of the car to goad him to violence. In this way, Coo is a symbol of the theme of Moving on From the Past by Taking Small Steps. Ginny has made Coo, a strange-looking creature suffering from an invisible disease, a symbol of strength and perseverance that reflects the reality of people living with disabilities, who need to be stronger and braver than their peers simply to be accepted.