A Snicker of Magic

“‘I can’t imagine anybody or anything lonelier than that midnight moon,’ said Mama. ‘That’d be awful—sitting up against ten thousand stars without arms to reach out and hold a single one.’”

As Mama looks up at the moon while driving into Midnight Gulch, her observations reveal the lonely nature of her heart. Mama, like her siblings and children, is plagued by a loneliness that she struggles to escape. This moment also communicates how loneliness is not a lack of company but a lack of connections.

“Since we never knew when Mama might wake us in the middle of the night ready to bolt out of town, Frannie liked to keep a suitcase packed full of all her worldly treasures, the special stuff she didn’t want left behind.”

Frannie’s suitcase represents the instability that the girls have faced while Mama moves them from place to place. Frannie’s need to keep a suitcase packed with her favorite things at all times shows the way she and Felicity have adapted to their nomadic lifestyle.

“And while leaving all your problems behind and starting over sounds like a fine solution, it never really worked for me. My heart’s a lot like Frannie Jo’s blue suitcase: I can’t seem to help packing up all the bad memories and taking them with me no matter where I go.”

Felicity tells the story of how Mama used Felicity’s last failed attempt at public speaking as an excuse to leave town. Mama’s justification was to get a fresh start, but Felicity feels that moving around won’t take away the bad memories. The importance of memories is a recurring idea throughout the story.