Three Times Lucky

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and physical abuse.

Mo is shaped by her elusive past and biological mother. Though her mother is absent, Mo feels her impact. She writes messages in bottles that she sends downstream in the hope that her mother will discover them and find her. Mo also writes letters to her mother that she never sends, which detail her experiences and her thoughts and feelings. Her mother is a sounding board and diary, even though she isn’t present.

The Colonel offers a contrasting example of relating to the past. Unlike Mo, the Colonel never strives to discover who he was before arriving in Tupelo Landing. Instead, he accepts and is grateful for his new life with Miss Lana and Mo. His life began on the night of the storm, and what came before it is no longer relevant. The town itself is also like one big family, as everyone is always there to support one another; it’s a place defined by its stability and sense of community.

In contrast, Mo hangs onto the possibility of discovering where she came from. At times, she struggles to see her found family as her own: “I studied her parents’ faces: strong faces, with eyes that peered straight into my heart.