Random Panda
Sal keeps these items in a plastic bag under her floorboards.
What is her mother's hair?
This person left secret envelopes on Phoebe's front porch.
Who is Mrs. Partridge?
"You can't keep the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building nests in your hair."
Who is Sal's father (John Hiddle)?
This person made the cheer team.
Who is Christy?
Sal and Gramps played this game while Sal was driving.
What is the moccasin game?
This may have caused Gram's Stroke.
What is a snake bite?
This is the primary reason Sal's grandmother, Gram, finds herself in the hospital after a stop at the Missouri River.
What is she was bitten by a water moccasin?
I'm not a murderer, Sal. I'm just a nurse who was there when your mother needed one."
Who is Margaret Cadaver?
Gram, Gramps, and Sal did this at the Pipestone National Monument after seeing another person do it.
What is smoke a peace pipe?
This is the relationship that Mr. Birkway and Mrs. Cadaver have.
What is they are twins?
Throughout the novel, Sal describes her mother's habit of doing this to the trees in the orchard to show them she loved them.
What is kissing them?
This specific type of footwear belongs to Sal's mother and is kept by Sal in a bag under her bed because they "hold her scent".
What are her mother's blue sandals?
"It's not so bad, Sal. It's just...small. And there are no trees."
Who is Ben Finney?
Gramps drove to the edge of this lake.
What is Lake Michigan?
The message of the second letter dropped on Phoebe's porch.
What is "Everyone has his own agenda"?
This is the name of the "blackberry kiss" flavored object that Sal finds in the woods, which reminds her of her mother and the sweetness of the farm.
What is a tree (the kissing tree)?
While Sal's father is away, Phoebe and Sal perform some amateur detective work by "sneaking" into this neighbor's house to find evidence that she is a murderer.
Who is Mrs. Cadaver?
This person looks at the sky and remarks, "In the course of a lifetime, what does it matter?"
Who is Gramps?
The true reason that Sal's father moved from Bybanks to Euclid.
What he can no longer stand to be surrounded by the memory of Sal's mother, Sugar.
The seven states that Sal, Gram, and Gramps drive through, not including Ohio and Idaho.
What are Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana?
This is the name of the national park that Sal and her grandparents visit, where Sal finally sees the "Old Faithful" geyser erupt.
What is Yellowstone National Park?
This is the specific, sneaky way Sal's mother chose to leave the farm - leaving behind this simple, handwritten item on the kitchen table instead of saying a face-to-face goodbye.
What is a note?
"I am not just a mother and a housewife; I am a person, too."
Who is Mrs. Winterbottom?
Even after she used a magnifying glass to find "clues," Phoebe didn't realize that, according to one of the mysterious notes, this is where the true answer lies.
What is in the heart?
Sal's last jealousy.
What is "Phoebe's mother came back and not mine"?