Walk Two Moons Chapter 43 Summary

Our Gooseberry

  • The cops do not take Sal to jail (phew!). Instead, they drive her back to Coeur d'Alene.
  • During the ride there, the sheriff lectures Sal about driving without a license. He makes her promise him she won't drive by herself until she has a license.
  • Sal asks the sheriff if he was there the night of the bus crash, and he tells her he was but he won't go into the details of it. He doesn't think she'd want to hear about everything that happened that night.
  • Still, she wants to know more, so Sal asks him if he remembers Mrs. Cadaver, which he does. He also remembers Sal's dad.
  • When she hears this, Sal tells him (and us) about the conversation she had with Mrs. Cadaver before she left. You know, the one we readers never really got to hear about? Apparently, Mrs. Cadaver was the only survivor of the bus crash. She and Sal's mother became friends on their long bus journey to Lewiston. Sal's mother told Mrs. Cadaver all about Sal and Bybanks and her whole family. Mrs. Cadaver held Sal's mother's hand in the final hours of her life, after the horrible bus crash. They had been sitting next to each other the whole ride.
  • So when Sal's father came to Lewiston to say goodbye to his wife, he visited Mrs. Cadaver in the hospital after learning that she had sat next to his wife before the crash. They talked for six hours straight. Sal's father maintained a connection with Mrs. Cadaver because she had been with his wife during the last hours of her life. Oh, how sad.
  • Sal falls asleep during the last bit of the journey to Coeur d'Alene, and when she wakes up, she is still in the sheriff's car, which is parked at the hospital.
  • The sheriff comes out of the hospital and gets back in the car. He gives Sal an envelope.
  • Inside, Gramps had left a message for her with the name of the motel where he is staying. He tells her that Gram died at three o'clock in the morning.
  • Sal hugs her grandfather when she gets to the motel. He tells her how much he misses Gram. When Sal notices a scribbled note on the table, Gramps tells her it's a love letter he had written to Gram that night.
  • Sal learns that Gram's body is being sent back to Bybanks where her father will meet it, and she and Gramps will return to Bybanks the next day.