After Grandma’s departure, Joey’s mother gives him a house key; he is alone at home for two hours after school prior to her return from work at the beauty parlor. This responsibility comes with appropriate rules: no cooking, no baths, no opening the door for strangers. Joey, having been accosted by aggressive neighborhood boys on the way home in the past, is happy to comply with this last rule.

The key is on a string around Joey’s neck. When he is feeling jittery in class, he practices swallowing the key and regurgitating it by pulling on the string. Mrs. Maxy removes the string one day to prevent this; however, Joey forgets and swallows the key whole. This event leads to the boy being dosed with mineral oil to have him evacuate it. He submits to Seth’s urging to swallow the key again, despite that it had been extracted from the toilet earlier that morning. In this sense, while the key represents a degree of autonomy for Joey, it also generates another level of difficulty when he succumbs to the desire to entertain Seth by swallowing it.