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Chapter 41
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Walk Two Moons, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Judgment, Perspective, and Storytelling
Parents, Children, and Growing Up
Grief
Nature
Summary
Analysis
Once the man leaves, Sal crawls under the railing and approaches the bus. Dawn is approaching, and Sal is happy for the light. She finds the bus lying on its side. The tires are punctured. Sal climbs onto it. The metal side of the bus has been peeled back, and Sal can see a mess of seats, foam, and mold inside. In her imagination, she always climbed in through a window and walked down the aisle, looking for anything of Momma’s. But Sal can’t get in—there’s no room.
The bus isn’t what Sal expects, and it shows her that she isn’t going to get the kind of closure from Momma’s death that she perhaps expected. Noting that there’s no room for Sal to get into the bus and find something of Momma’s symbolizes Sal’s inability to reach Momma—it is indeed impossible for Sal to bring Momma home, as Sal and other characters have alluded to throughout the novel.
Themes
Sal picks her way back to the car and discovers the sheriff parked behind Gramps’s car. The deputy scolds Sal for playing on the bus, but then the sheriff asks Sal where her car’s driver is. Sal admits she’s alone; Gramps is in Coeur D’Alene. She tells the sheriff she drove herself here and tells the deputy her age. Then, when the sheriff asks why, Sal tells him everything else about why she couldn’t wait for someone else to drive her. When she’s done, the sheriff talks on his radio for a bit and then tells Sal to get in.
At first, the sheriff and the deputy treat Sal like they would any other kid they found playing on a dangerous accident site. But as the sheriff realizes who Sal is, his perception of her changes, and he treats her with compassion and kindness by listening to her story.
Themes
Sal figures she’s going to jail. This doesn’t bother her, but she’s upset that she won’t be able to do what she came here to do or get back to Gram. Instead of taking her to jail, though, the sheriff takes Sal to the cemetery, right to Momma’s grave. On the gravestone is Momma’s name—Chanhassen “Sugar” Pickford Hiddle—and an engraving of a maple tree. Seeing that, Sal knows that Momma isn’t coming back. As Sal sits, she hears a birdsong coming from a willow tree. Sal hugs the willow, kisses it, and tells it “happy birthday.” When she gets back in the sheriff’s car, she says that Momma isn’t actually gone—she’s singing in the trees. She tells the sheriff he can take her to jail.
The sheriff continues to show Sal empathy by driving her to Momma’s grave. Seeing the grave firsthand allows Sal to finally accept that Momma is dead and isn’t coming back. And hearing the birdsong coming from the willow—in a way that implies the willow tree is a singing tree, like the one in Bybanks—shows Sal that she can connect to Momma everywhere. Momma is a part of the natural world, so as long as Sal has access to nature, she has access to her mother’s spirit.
Themes
