Monday’s Not Coming

Monday’s Not Coming

by

Tiffany Jackson

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Monday’s Not Coming makes teaching easy.

Mrs. Charles Character Analysis

Mrs. Charles is April, Monday, August, and Tuesday’s mother; she murders Monday and August and is the novel’s primary antagonist. She’s a single mother who lives with the children in Ed Borough. She and her husband, Tip, have been separated for some time—and Mrs. Charles purposefully keeps Tip away from the children and refuses to let him see them unless he pays her the thousands of dollars he owes in child support. She tolerates Monday and Claudia’s friendship, though Mrs. Charles and Ma openly dislike each other. Sometime before the novel begins, Mrs. Charles loses her job and struggles to make ends meet. Mrs. Charles shows two very different sides of herself throughout the novel. In a flashback to two years before Monday goes missing, Mrs. Charles pleads with Ma to do what she can to convince a woman who attends Ma’s church to leave her physically abusive husband, implying that it’s the community’s responsibility to keep the woman safe. But Claudia interacts with a totally different—and downright frightening—woman in the years after that incident. Monday seems unusually afraid of her mother and, at times, Mrs. Charles even physically abuses or verbally berates Monday in front of other people. When Claudia first begins her search for Monday, she goes to Mrs. Charles first—and Mrs. Charles behaves as though she’d like to hurt Claudia. When Ms. Valente visits the Charles house, she believes that there’s something seriously wrong with Mrs. Charles and that she’s dangerous. Finally, when the police go to the Charles’s house to evict the family, they discover that Mrs. Charles murdered Monday and August and hid their bodies in her freezer. The ensuing investigation reveals that Mrs. Charles neglected and brutally abused her children for years. Though she denies it at first, Mrs. Charles eventually admits to murdering August and Monday and insists she isn’t sorry for what she did.

Mrs. Charles Quotes in Monday’s Not Coming

The Monday’s Not Coming quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Charles or refer to Mrs. Charles. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Child Abuse Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4. One Year Before the Before Quotes

Monday lied with matter-of-fact precision, in a self-preservation type of way. I could never manage it, even to save my own ass.

“Dang, Ma’s gonna be so mad.” I hated the idea of disappointing her.

Monday grunted, staring off. “She never gets that mad.”

Related Characters: Claudia Coleman (speaker), Monday Charles (speaker), Ma, Mrs. Charles
Page Number: 31
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9. One Year Before the Before Quotes

Even though it looked like an army of trolls had beaten her with baseball bats, how could I not believe? She was my best friend. If she was lying, it had to be for a good reason.

Right?

Related Characters: Claudia Coleman (speaker), Monday Charles, Mrs. Charles
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12. Two Years Before the Before Quotes

“Anyway, are you going to talk to Dedria’s mother tomorrow or what?”

I stopped, peering over the banister.

Ma shook her head. “Patti, she got to leave on her own terms. It ain’t my place!”

Mrs. Charles glared at her. “Janet, that man is going to kill her one of these days! Are you going to be able to look yourself in the mirror when he does?”

Related Characters: Ma (speaker), Mrs. Charles (speaker), Claudia Coleman, Monday Charles, Shayla Green
Page Number: 90
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16. The Before Quotes

Daddy sighed. “Janet, it’s their family business. It ain’t none of ours.”

“But we—”

“Just stay out of their drama, will you?” he sighed. “I don’t wanna get mixed up in their mess.”

Related Characters: Ma (speaker), Daddy (speaker), Claudia Coleman, Monday Charles, Mrs. Charles
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20. One Year Before the Before Quotes

“I said come on!” Mrs. Charles barked. “I ain’t got all day!”

Monday flinched, her eyes closing as tears ran down her face. With slumped shoulders, she dragged her feet after her mother.

Ma and I watched them walk off in silence, my nerves prickling. The fear Monday had of her mother didn’t seem normal. The fear I had for Monday didn’t seem normal. Nothing about the moment felt normal.

Related Characters: Claudia Coleman (speaker), Mrs. Charles (speaker), Monday Charles, Ma
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22. The Before Quotes

“Over the last few months we’ve had dozens of girls around here reported missing, close to fifty in one week. Alleged kidnappings when most of them just run off away from home ‘cause they can’t do what they want.”

“But shouldn’t you still be looking for them anyways?”

He opened his mouth, then closed it, clearing his throat.

“Yes, but Claudia, I want you to remember, when you come into a police station, claiming your friend is ‘missing,’ it means us officers have to take our focus away from these girls. Girls who could really be in trouble.”

Tears prickled, and I avoided his glare.

“Now, if your friend’s really missing and she’s not on this board, then only a parent can file a missing persons report. And if her mother won’t, the only person left would be her father or a legal guardian.”

Related Characters: Claudia Coleman (speaker), Detective Carson (speaker), Monday Charles, Mrs. Charles, Tip Charles
Page Number: 166-167
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 50. May Quotes

Can I tell you a secret? I knew she was dead. I just hoped she’d be in the trunk of a car, chopped up, and buried somewhere. Not in a freezer, hiding in plain sight. That aggravated the pain felt by anyone who ever laid eyes on her.

Related Characters: Claudia Coleman (speaker), Monday Charles, Mrs. Charles, August Charles
Page Number: 397
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Monday’s Not Coming LitChart as a printable PDF.
Monday’s Not Coming PDF

Mrs. Charles Quotes in Monday’s Not Coming

The Monday’s Not Coming quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Charles or refer to Mrs. Charles. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Child Abuse Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4. One Year Before the Before Quotes

Monday lied with matter-of-fact precision, in a self-preservation type of way. I could never manage it, even to save my own ass.

“Dang, Ma’s gonna be so mad.” I hated the idea of disappointing her.

Monday grunted, staring off. “She never gets that mad.”

Related Characters: Claudia Coleman (speaker), Monday Charles (speaker), Ma, Mrs. Charles
Page Number: 31
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9. One Year Before the Before Quotes

Even though it looked like an army of trolls had beaten her with baseball bats, how could I not believe? She was my best friend. If she was lying, it had to be for a good reason.

Right?

Related Characters: Claudia Coleman (speaker), Monday Charles, Mrs. Charles
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12. Two Years Before the Before Quotes

“Anyway, are you going to talk to Dedria’s mother tomorrow or what?”

I stopped, peering over the banister.

Ma shook her head. “Patti, she got to leave on her own terms. It ain’t my place!”

Mrs. Charles glared at her. “Janet, that man is going to kill her one of these days! Are you going to be able to look yourself in the mirror when he does?”

Related Characters: Ma (speaker), Mrs. Charles (speaker), Claudia Coleman, Monday Charles, Shayla Green
Page Number: 90
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16. The Before Quotes

Daddy sighed. “Janet, it’s their family business. It ain’t none of ours.”

“But we—”

“Just stay out of their drama, will you?” he sighed. “I don’t wanna get mixed up in their mess.”

Related Characters: Ma (speaker), Daddy (speaker), Claudia Coleman, Monday Charles, Mrs. Charles
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20. One Year Before the Before Quotes

“I said come on!” Mrs. Charles barked. “I ain’t got all day!”

Monday flinched, her eyes closing as tears ran down her face. With slumped shoulders, she dragged her feet after her mother.

Ma and I watched them walk off in silence, my nerves prickling. The fear Monday had of her mother didn’t seem normal. The fear I had for Monday didn’t seem normal. Nothing about the moment felt normal.

Related Characters: Claudia Coleman (speaker), Mrs. Charles (speaker), Monday Charles, Ma
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22. The Before Quotes

“Over the last few months we’ve had dozens of girls around here reported missing, close to fifty in one week. Alleged kidnappings when most of them just run off away from home ‘cause they can’t do what they want.”

“But shouldn’t you still be looking for them anyways?”

He opened his mouth, then closed it, clearing his throat.

“Yes, but Claudia, I want you to remember, when you come into a police station, claiming your friend is ‘missing,’ it means us officers have to take our focus away from these girls. Girls who could really be in trouble.”

Tears prickled, and I avoided his glare.

“Now, if your friend’s really missing and she’s not on this board, then only a parent can file a missing persons report. And if her mother won’t, the only person left would be her father or a legal guardian.”

Related Characters: Claudia Coleman (speaker), Detective Carson (speaker), Monday Charles, Mrs. Charles, Tip Charles
Page Number: 166-167
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 50. May Quotes

Can I tell you a secret? I knew she was dead. I just hoped she’d be in the trunk of a car, chopped up, and buried somewhere. Not in a freezer, hiding in plain sight. That aggravated the pain felt by anyone who ever laid eyes on her.

Related Characters: Claudia Coleman (speaker), Monday Charles, Mrs. Charles, August Charles
Page Number: 397
Explanation and Analysis: