Walk Two Moons

The man drives away, and Sal makes her way down to the bus on foot. She had hoped to be able to get inside and look around, but the bus is too mangled, so she climbs back up the hill as the sun rises. A sheriff is parked behind Sal’s car, and scolds her for fooling around on the bus before asking where her family is. Sal responds truthfully and explains about her mother; the sheriff asks her to get in his car. Sal expects to sheriff to put her in jail, but he instead takes her to the cemetery where her mother is buried. Seeing the grave finally brings home the reality of her mother’s death to Sal, and she spends several moments committing the place to memory. She hears birdsong coming from a nearby willow, kisses the tree, and returns to the sheriff’s car, telling him that her mother “isn’t actually gone at all. She’s singing in the trees” (263).

The sheriff drives Sal back to Coeur d’Alene. Sal wants to know what the night of the bus crash was like, but the sheriff doesn’t want to upset her. Eventually, however, he concedes that while he isn’t sure whether he saw her mother, he does remember her father’s arrival at the station. He also remembers Mrs. Cadaver: “Nine hours after the bus rolled over, as all those stretchers were being carried up the hill, and everyone despairing—there was her hand coming up out of the window and everyone was shouting because there it was, a moving hand” (265). Sal explains that her mother and Mrs. Cadaver sat next to one another throughout the trip, and that her mother told Margaret about her family back in Bybanks. This is what Mrs. Cadaver explained to Sal on the day Mrs. Winterbottom returned, but Sal “still thought that there might have been a mistake” until she saw her mother’s grave (267).

When Sal reaches the hospital in Coeur d’Alene, there’s a message waiting for her: It states that Gram died early that morning and gives her the address of Gramps’ hotel. The sheriff drives her there, offering to help in any way he can. Gramps, however, has already arranged for Gram’s body to be brought back to Bybanks for burial, so the sheriff leaves. Sal notices a piece of paper in Gramps’ suitcase, and he explains that he wrote a love letter to Gram last night. He admits that he misses Gram, and Sal sits with and comforts him.

Sal explains that she, her father, and Gramps are once again living on the farm in Bybanks. Although the family misses Gram, they find new things to do and enjoy. Gramps gets a puppy and continues to teach Sal to drive; they also play a game where they imagine what they’d be thinking if they were walking in a particular person’s moccasins. This game has helped Sal understand that her grandparents planned the road trip for her sake, and that it was also for her sake that her father didn’t take her to Lewiston when he first learned of his wife’s death. Sal also credits Phoebe’s story with helping her process her mother’s death. Although she still doesn’t fully understand why suffering and death exist, she’s now able to face them without becoming consumed by them.

Recently, Sal has realized there are three things that make her jealous: the fact that Ben wrote about another girl in his journal, the fact that her mother wanted more children, and the fact that Phoebe’s mother returned. However, she and Ben have exchanged valentines, and he, Phoebe, Mrs. Cadaver, and Mrs. Partridge are planning to visit Bybanks soon: “But for now, Gramps has his beagle, and I have a chicken and a singing tree, and that’s the way it is” (276).