Walk Two Moons

Sal is walking home after school with Phoebe. Phoebe is unusually sullen for no apparent reason. She tells Sal that Dad has to stop seeing Mrs. Cadaver—Mrs. Cadaver might chop him up, and then, Sal would have to go live with Momma. Sal is surprised, since she hasn’t mentioned Momma at all. She lies that she’d go live with Momma in that event, though she knows such a thing would be impossible.

When Sal and Phoebe walk into Phoebe’s house, Mrs. Winterbottom is sitting in front of a pan of burned brownies. She blows her nose, asks Phoebe how school was, and kisses Phoebe’s cheek. Phoebe brushes off Mrs. Winterbottom’s kiss and insists she doesn’t want a brownie, since they’re burnt and she’s fat. Mrs. Winterbottom assures Phoebe that she isn’t overweight, but Phoebe snaps. She shouts that she’s fat and doesn’t need her mother to wait for her after school. Then, she flounces upstairs.

Mrs. Winterbottom offers Sal a brownie, so Sal sits down. She starts to remember the day before Momma left. Sal didn’t know Momma was going to leave the next day, and she continually refused to walk up to the fields with Momma. Finally, Sal snapped at Momma. Now, she wishes that wasn’t one of Momma’s last memories of her.

Just then, Prudence flies through the front door, wailing that she botched her cheerleading tryout. As Mrs. Winterbottom suggests she come to the second round of tryouts tomorrow to watch, Sal can tell that Mrs. Winterbottom is trying to put aside her own sadness. Sal realizes that Prudence “ha[d] her own agenda,” just like Sal did the day Momma invited her to walk to the fields.

Prudence screeches that Mrs. Winterbottom can’t come watch as Phoebe comes back into the kitchen with another white envelope. The message in this one reads, “In the course of a lifetime, what does it matter?” Prudence insists she has better things to worry about, and Phoebe teases Prudence that cheerleading tryouts don’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

Meanwhile, Sal notices something odd happen to Mrs. Winterbottom: she puts a hand to her mouth and stares out the window. Later, as Sal walks home, she thinks about the message. She figures that cheerleading tryouts probably don’t matter, but yelling at your mother might. She’s sure that yelling at your mother will definitely matter, though, if your mother leaves.