Ruby-Alice Akers: The Quiet Heart of Go as a River

Ruby-Alice Akers is one of the most quietly powerful characters in Shelley Read's Go as a River. At first glance she seems merely a strange, solitary old woman—a neighbor in Iola, Colorado, whom the town dismisses as crazy. But as Victoria Nash’s life intersects with hers, Ruby-Alice emerges as an unlikely ally whose silent empathy and unspoken understanding become vital to Victoria’s survival. Her arc from a feared outcast to a gentle caretaker mirrors the novel’s deepest themes of loss, prejudice, and the redemptive power of small acts of kindness.

Overview and First Impressions

Ruby-Alice lives in a faded brown farmhouse hidden among thick pines, down the road from the Nash family. She is known for her rickety black bicycle, her constant black stocking cap, and her menagerie of stray animals. The town—including Victoria’s mother—finds her “too peculiar to warrant a good Christian’s attention” (chapter 5). Victoria’s brother Seth even taunts her by throwing rocks, calling her “Mad Myrtle” and “the devil.” Ruby-Alice never responds; she simply pedals on.

Yet even as a child, Victoria secretly prays for her, whispering “GodHelpRubyAliceAkersAmen” every time she sees her. This instinctive compassion, hidden from the family, plants the seed for the later bond between the two women.

Plot Role: The Quiet Ally

Ruby-Alice enters the main plot when she becomes the first person to offer refuge to Wilson Moon, the young Indigenous drifter who has captured Victoria’s heart. The town’s prejudice has driven Wil out of Dunlap’s flophouse, but Ruby-Alice takes him into her home without question. She later blocks Victoria on the road—not to frighten her, but to signal that Wil is nearby. Once Victoria understands, she knocks on Ruby-Alice’s petal-pink door and finds Wil waiting.

After Victoria gives birth alone in a mountain hut and, starving and desperate, leaves her baby on a stranger’s car, she collapses at Ruby-Alice’s house. Ruby-Alice nurses her for four days, feeding her broth and bread and helping her bathe. The evidence states: “Ruby-Alice would receive me, just as she had received Wil.” This parallel—taking in first the hunted young man, then the broken young mother—defines her role as a sanctuary.

Later, when Victoria is alone running the farm, Ruby-Alice becomes a dependable ear. After Ruby-Alice collapses, Victoria moves her into the farmhouse and cares for her. Ruby-Alice dies peacefully at home, surrounded by her dogs, with Victoria whispering “Go as a river” over her.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Ruby-Alice’s motivations are never stated aloud—she is largely silent throughout the novel—but her actions reveal them:

• Empathy born from loss. Cora Mitchell tells Victoria that Ruby-Alice “went funny after the flu swept in … She lost [her family] all of ’em.” The implicit interpretation is that her oddness is a grief response, not madness. Her willingness to shelter Wil and nurse Victoria stems from a deep understanding of being an outsider and of experiencing devastating loss.
• Unwavering patience. She waits day after day on the road for Victoria, never forcing the encounter, trusting that the girl will eventually come to her.
• Practical kindness. She does not lecture or pity. She simply feeds, cleans, and watches over Victoria without requiring explanation or gratitude.
• Steadfast loyalty to place. When Victoria prepares to move the orchard, Ruby-Alice begins refusing food and drink. The narrator interprets this as her refusing to be “hauled away like the trees.” She dies in her own pink living room, on her own sofa.

Chronological Arc

Key Relationships

• With Victoria Nash: The core relationship. Ruby-Alice is first a fearful stranger, then a mysterious messenger, then a caregiver, and finally a beloved friend. Victoria becomes the only person to truly know her. When Victoria finds the old woman’s preserved relics—an ivory hand mirror, wedding bands, a doll—she understands that Ruby-Alice’s story “was about love and sadness that had proven too mighty … to bear.” The relationship is built on mutual, wordless care.
• With Wilson Moon: Ruby-Alice hides Wil from the bounty hunters and townspeople. The text never shows their conversations, but her willingness to risk her own safety for a stranger reflects her moral clarity.
• With her lost family: Ruby-Alice keeps their belongings polished and arranged in her dresser drawer like a shrine. The evidence describes this as “a museum display” of objects that speak to her enduring love.
• With animals: She lives with “a menagerie of stray animals”—dogs, guinea hens, chickens. They are her constant companions and her only company for decades.

Key Decisions and Consequences

1. Taking in Wilson Moon. Consequence: She enables Victoria and Wil’s secret affair, which leads to Victoria’s pregnancy and, ultimately, to Wil’s death (he refuses to leave because he cannot bear to abandon Victoria). Ruby-Alice’s decision to shelter him is an act of defiance against the town’s prejudice.
2. Waiting on the road for Victoria. Consequence: She guides Victoria to Wil, setting the romance in motion.
3. Nursing Victoria after the loss of Baby Blue. Consequence: Victoria survives and eventually returns to her farm, ready to rebuild her life. This act of care is the turning point for Victoria’s recovery.
4. Refusing to be moved from Iola. Consequence: She dies in her own home, on her own terms. Victoria ensures her burial in the Iola cemetery, attended by the townspeople who once shunned her.

Theme and Symbol Connections

• Love and Sacrifice: Ruby-Alice’s entire existence after the flu is a living sacrifice—she gives up normal human connection, yet she opens her home to two outcasts. Her love is expressed in actions, not words.
• Prejudice and Injustice: The town’s treatment of Ruby-Alice (as “crazy,” “devil,” “Mad Myrtle”) parallels the racism Wil faces. Both are judged by appearance and difference rather than character.
• Motherhood and Identity: Ruby-Alice lost her own family, but she becomes a surrogate mother figure to Victoria. She nurtures, feeds, and bathes her as a mother would. The preserved doll in her drawer suggests she may have lost a daughter.
• Resilience and Survival: Despite overwhelming grief, Ruby-Alice survives for decades. She lives alone, rides her bicycle, cares for animals, and eventually finds purpose in helping Victoria.
• Memory and Place: Her house and its pink quilts, the persistent pines, and her bicycle all become symbols of a life lived in the shadow of loss. Her refusal to leave Iola underscores that place holds memory.

5 Book-Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why did Ruby-Alice block Victoria on the road in Chapter 5?

Ruby-Alice had taken Wilson Moon into her home to hide him from the town’s prejudice. She stood in the road each day, silent and unmoving, because she needed to tell Victoria that Wil was nearby. Victoria initially misunderstood and rushed past, but later realized Ruby-Alice was trying to help. The evidence confirms: “The old woman had been waiting on the road day after day for me … She was reaching out … to alert me. Wil had stayed in Iola, hiding at Ruby-Alice’s place.”

2. How did Ruby-Alice lose her family?

The novel never provides an explicit scene, but Cora Mitchell tells Victoria that Ruby-Alice “lost [her family] all of ’em” to the flu epidemic that swept through the region. The exact identities—whether parents, siblings, a husband, or a child—are never stated. When Victoria later finds a drawer full of polished heirlooms (a doll, wedding bands, a pipe), these are interpreted as relics of that lost family.

3. What items does Ruby-Alice keep in her dresser drawer, and what do they signify?

The drawer contains an ivory hand mirror, an embroidery hoop, a silver pocket watch, a mahogany pipe, a fishing reel, a folded handkerchief embroidered with a bird, a small doll, and two gold wedding bands tied with twine. These are old, worn, and perfectly dusted. The narrator interprets them as belonging to the family members Ruby-Alice lost—each object a memory. The collection shows that she never moved past the grief; she preserved their essence.

4. How does Ruby-Alice care for Victoria after she gives up Baby Blue?

Victoria arrives at Ruby-Alice’s house starving, delirious, and emotionally shattered. Ruby-Alice guides her inside, tips water to her lips, feeds her broth and bread, and brings a fresh peach cut into bite-size pieces. She covers Victoria with a pink quilt. Over four days, she gradually increases Victoria’s food intake, helps her bathe, brushes her hair, and dresses her. The evidence states: “Ruby-Alice helped me bathe and gave me fresh clothes. She teased the tangles from my long hair …” She asks no questions and does not press for explanations.

5. What does Ruby-Alice’s death scene reveal about her character?

Ruby-Alice dies quietly in her home, lying on the sofa she preferred, with her dogs beside her. Victoria has moved her back to her own house when Ruby-Alice begins refusing food and drink—an implicit choice not to be moved away from Iola. Victoria whispers “Go as a river” over her, linking her to Wil’s philosophy. The scene shows Ruby-Alice as someone who controlled her own ending: she would die in the place that held all her memories, on her own terms, peaceful and surrounded by love.