A Snicker of Magic

“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.

“Lonely had followed me around for as long as I could remember. I never caught that stupid word in my blue book, but it kept showing up anyway.”

Felicity’s familiarity with the word lonely shows that it’s a feeling she has experienced often in her life. Felicity’s loneliness is a result of her nomadic lifestyle with her family, and The Impact of Loneliness is a theme that the book explores through Felicity and her family.

“I handed the book over to Jonah. It only occurred to me after he’d reached for it that I’d never let anybody touch that book before. My ears burned and my fingers prickled, but my heart said YES. So I didn’t snatch it back.”

Trusting Jonah with her special blue book of words right after meeting him is a powerful moment for Felicity. She has never had anyone she felt she could hand her book to before, and passing the book to Jonah represents the trust she has in him. This quote also touches on the way Felicity listens to her heart, which is an important theme in the story.

“Somewhere out there, beneath the stars and shadows, the road was calling out to her already. She was itching to go again, and we’d only been there a day. Before long, we’d set out. We’d load up the Jalapeño and leave another town, never to return. Just like the Brothers Threadbare.”

Felicity recalls spying on Mama after work, seeing Mama stare out the window. Felicity understands the way Mama works, and in this quote, she begins to connect Mama’s wandering heart with the Threadbare curse.

“Before Stone climbed into the balloon, he told me to stop wasting my time and try to do some good with my life. ‘Your words matter more than you know’ is what he told me. And then he climbed back into that balloon and flew away. Just like a dream.”

As Oliver recalls his meeting with Stone Weatherly, he recites Stone’s last known words, which stress the theme of The Power of Words. Stone’s advice to Oliver leads to Oliver confessing his love to Eldee Mae, eventually resulting in their marriage and the establishment of the Beedle persona for anonymous good deeds.

“A family can look a hundred different ways, I knew that. But ever since I came to Cleo’s, and from the first spindiddly second I knew Boone was my uncle, I felt like puzzle pieces that I didn’t know were missing started snapping together against my heart. I didn’t just want to belong to a place anymore. I wanted to belong to a family, and I wanted them to belong to me.”

With the addition of Boone to her known family, Felicity comes to realize the importance of not just having a home, but also having connections to family and friends. More than a place to stay, Felicity wants to have people she belongs to and people who belong to her.

“Maybe sometimes the words I say are as magical as the words I see.”

Not wanting to tell Boone about the negative words she sees around him, Felicity lies and tells Boone she sees new beginning. As a result, the negative words around Boone disappear. It is the first time Felicity realizes that she can use her words to impact those around her, instead of just collecting them quietly.

“Stories aren’t peaceful things. Stories don’t care how shy you are. They don’t care how insecure you are, either. Stories find their own way out eventually. All you gotta do is turn ’em loose.”

Florentine, who also writes poems and stories, tells Felicity about the nature of stories. She encourages Felicity to embrace her role as a storyteller because the stories will find their way out eventually. This moment foreshadows Felicity’s speech at the Duel, when she tells the complete story of the Brothers Threadbare and breaks the curse.

“‘It means we…’ Cleo’s voice trailed off. She cleared her throat and said, ‘It means he was cursed to wander and never rest. Cursed to fail at everything he put his hand to. But that’s only if you believe the stories, which I most certainly do not.’”

As Cleo tells the story of Stone Weatherly, she slips up in her wording, indicating that there is a part of her that believes the curse still lives in her family, despite her efforts to downplay it. Cleo’s slip shows the difference between what she is thinking and what she is saying, indicating that the curse likely has more power than Cleo wants to admit.

“‘Felicity darlin’,’ she drawled, ‘you know what helped me figure out how to put my words together? Music. Music gets my words where they need to go. So you keep catching them words, you hear? Pluck them out of the wind. String them together like the finest set of pearls. Line them up on paper. And if it hurts too much to say them, then you sing them, or whisper them, or write them into a story. But don’t waste them. Your words matter more than you know.’”

Rosie Walker pulls Felicity aside during their first meeting, after Rosie has learned about Felicity’s ability with words. Rosie’s advice stresses the Power of Words theme and gives Felicity the idea to recite her work over Boone’s banjo playing, making it easier for her to speak at the Duel.

“That day Jonah became more than just a friend who kept my words safe. I realized he was the kind of friend who didn’t mind the silent places. The quiet fell between us like a comfortable old quilt.”

As Felicity’s friendship with Jonah deepens, she realizes that they’ve gotten to a place where words come easily between them, but that not every moment requires words. This moment offers a different perspective on the Power of Words theme, showing that silence can also be powerful with the right company.

“You could win the duel with that, said the selfish half of my brain. But you don’t need more hope, said the do-good half. You’ve got enough inside you and all around you. You’ve got it in your friends. You’ve got it in your family. You’ve had it all along.”

As Felicity debates sending her dove tattoo of hope away, she reassures herself. Her confidence in the hope that she gets from her friends and family shows the importance of the connections Felicity has made since she came to Midnight Gulch. No longer lonely, Felicity understands that having people close to her will give her all the strength and hope that she needs.

“I clutched the locket so tight in my fist, I wondered if it’d crumble. Enough magic to take her sad away, that’s what I wanted. I didn’t have that. But I did have my words.”

When Felicity observes Mama struggling with the Gallery painting, she longs for the ability to help Mama. However, without magic, Felicity turns to her words, revisiting the Power of Words theme. Felicity goes on to tell Florentine about Mama’s painting talent, encouraging Mama to keep going without placing more pressure on her shoulders.

“And Burl told his parents he’d never been happier. He said he wished every day could be a blackberry sunrise. And so, as a gift, Abigail mixed that memory into the ice-cream recipe. Every time Burl tasted it, he remembered that morning. Blackberry Sunrise was his favorite flavor.”

The origin story of Blackberry Sunrise ice cream, made as a gift from Abigail Honeycutt to her son, Burl, shows the way ice cream symbolizes love and friendship. Blackberry Sunrise plays an important role in helping the townspeople recall their pasts and showing Felicity the painful truth about her father’s departure.

“‘I came to tell you’—Day stood up straight and looked right up at the balcony—‘that I’m sorry.’ That shut Cleo up. Whatever she was about to shout back got stuck in her mouth. She took a long draw on her cigarette instead. ‘You should have told me that twenty years ago,’ Cleo said in a curl of smoke.”

Day’s apology to Cleo is an important turning point in their relationship. Throughout the story, Day has made many attempts to speak to Cleo, only to be ignored. When Day finally apologizes, he catches Cleo off guard and opens the door for them to make amends and rekindle their relationship. This moment helps emphasize the Power of Words theme.

“Sad memories don’t just come in ice cream, you know. Everything you touch, everything you smell, everything you taste, every picture you see—all of that has the potential to call up a sad memory. You can’t choose what comes up first. But you can choose to replace it with something good. I choose to think on the good parts.”

After Felicity and Mama share some Blackberry Sunrise, Felicity wonders how Mama can always bring up good memories instead of bad ones. Mama’s advice about replacing the bad with the good helps Felicity to solve the Threadbare curse. Felicity realizes that the brothers had to replace their last performance together, the duel, with a good one. The playing of the Weatherly brothers’ instruments together breaks the curse because their chords mingle in harmony instead of in battle.

“The guitar. The banjo. The locket. My sweet amends. They were all connected. I was connected to all of them.”

When Felicity realizes that both Brothers Threadbare instruments are in the same building, coupled with the warmth coming from her locket, she connects all the pieces of the curse and realizes that she’s very close to breaking it. This key moment leads to Felicity’s speech in Chapter 25, during which she lifts the Threadbare curse.

“I concentrated on the rest of my crazy family—Uncle Boone, Aunt Cleo, Frannie Jo, and Biscuit. And Roger Pickle, too, wherever he was. And as I thought about them, the love I felt crowded out all the fear in me. There was no room for fear after that. Frannie Jo gave me a thumbs-up like I was doing a great job, even though I hadn’t even started. Day Grissom draped his arm around Cleo’s shoulders and they both leaned in closer, watching me without blinking. Boone was jamming close to the stage, proud to be standing beside me. There was no magic in the world more powerful than that kind of love.”

In one of Felicity’s scariest moments, on stage in front of an audience without the poems she’s prepared, Felicity concentrates on her family in the audience. She feels so connected to them and so loved by them that she gathers her strength and confidence. Felicity’s realization about the power of love prepares her to talk about the Threadbare curse and leads her down the right path toward breaking it.

“And if they had to do it over, I don’t think they would have abandoned each other out here on this hillside. I think they would have said, ‘Sorry for what I did to you.’ And ‘I choose to remember the good.’ And they would have said ‘I love you.’ Maybe if you say those words, maybe if you believe them, no curse in the world has any power over you.”

Felicity describes how the Brothers Threadbare searched for each other, wishing to make amends until the very end. She believes they would do it over again and change the outcome to a positive one if they could. Felicity has realized that Isabella Thistle’s curse urged the brothers to make amends all along, but they never managed to. With this knowledge, Felicity has Boone and Toast play the brothers’ instruments together, symbolizing the brothers’ making amends and playing together.

“I heard you. As soon as I heard you start talking, I figured out how to fix the Gallery. I figured out how to fix…lots of things.”

Mama explains to Felicity why she was gone by the end of Felicity’s speech. As Felicity began to break the curse, Mama has a snap realization about what is missing from the Gallery. This realization is later revealed to be Mama’s belief that her family belongs in Midnight Gulch.

“I still missed Roger Pickle. I was still hurt that he hadn’t come back to us. But I didn’t feel like my family was in pieces anymore. We might never look like a normal family, but I didn’t mind. Normal was never one of my favorite words anyway. I glanced up at the painted faces of all the people I’d come to know, and wanted to know. Home isn’t just a house or a city or a place; home is what happens when you’re brave enough to love people.”

When Mama reveals that she’s added her family to the mural of Midnight Gulch, Felicity realizes that she wasn’t just lacking a place to call home before, but also the connections that make one feel complete and loved. Felicity has built many friendships in Midnight Gulch and feels that she and her family have found home because of the love that surrounds them. The presence of love counters the loneliness that Felicity and her family have fought throughout the story.

“I suppose there’s no way of knowing which shadow belonged to which brother. There’s no way to tell which shadow reached first. I guess it doesn’t matter who reached first, though. What matters is that one of them reached out. What matters is that the other one held on.”

When Felicity releases Florentine’s burdens—the jars containing the Weatherly brothers’ shadows—the brothers enter the Gallery painting, just like they used to. When the shadows see one another for the first time, they immediately make amends, forgiving one another for their past feuds. Though the Weatherly brothers are long dead, this ending brings closure to the feud that left their family cursed for generations, showing that it’s never too late to forgive.