The-Hummingbird-s-Cage(101)

It was a while before I had the heart to look for Simon.

In the periodicals section, I skipped the computer and turned again to the microfilm. Wheeler newspapers, starting with 1942. Reel after reel, month by month, year by year until, in December 1944, a notice that U.S. Army Sergeant Simon Greenwood, thirty-five, 2nd Ranger Battalion, had gone missing in action in the Hürtgen Forest, on the border between Belgium and Germany.

It mentioned a fiancée, Margaret Dahl, but no other family.

I ran through more reels of microfilm, to the end of the war and beyond, but there was no other mention of him.

Margaret eventually married William Carmody in late 1946. There was a picture with the wedding announcement, the couple smiling at the camera, looking much as they had the night I met them in the pub. A computer search turned up a William Carmody who died in Denver fifteen years ago, a retired businessman, survived by his wife, Margaret, his five children, twelve grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Margaret “Meg” Carmody passed away only two years ago, at the age of eighty-six.

I turned and headed back to the Jeep. When the engine kicked in, I gripped the steering wheel and, for the barest second, wondered if I was going to continue south toward the foothills. If I’d round the bend to see what was left of Morro, the mining town where the copper had played out half a century ago. And to see if, just on the other side of town, there was a road cutting off to the right, heading up to a cabin in a clearing halfway up the mountain.

Instead, I wheeled the Jeep around in a tight arc, kicking up dust, heading back to the highway.

I would leave Morro as it was.

As it is.

As it will be.





QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION


1. Jim uses some classic tactics of an abuser to keep Joanna trapped. What are they? Did Joanna have chances to leave her husband, other than through Bernadette’s help?

2. Why are the people in Morro there? Some of them seem to be people who have died. But Joanna’s unborn son is there as well, which suggests it’s a place for souls or spirits of another kind. Is Morro a type of heaven?

3. The Mountain in Morro has a strong effect on Joanna. What does the Mountain symbolize? What could be the “unwavering light” at its crest?

4. Why might Laurel hear the barking dog, but not Joanna?

5. Even though Jim never physically shows up in Morro, Joanna still strongly feels his presence there—why might that be? Is it Joanna and Laurel’s inability to break free of him? Or could he be inserting himself in some way?

6. Do you think Morro is a real place? Or is it all just a hallucination of the heroine? And if it is a hallucination, does it matter?

7. Why is Joanna given the option to return to the “real world,” while others in Morro aren’t?

8. Joanna ultimately decides to leave Morro. Would you have made the same decision?

9. Joanna’s final battle with Jim echoes many of the things she’s seen or experienced while in Morro. What are some of them?

10. A freak hailstorm helps Joanna defeat Jim. Was it a natural phenomenon, or could it have been more than that?

11. Why do Joanna and Laurel put hummingbird feeders all around their house in Taos? What does the hummingbird symbolize?

12. Will Joanna ever return to Morro? If she does, what might she find there?


Photo courtesy Joe Fudge Tamara Dietrich was born in Germany to a U.S. military family and raised in the Appalachian town of Cumberland, Maryland. She has wanted to write ever since she could read.

She earned a degree in English/creative writing from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and launched into journalism. Chasing a newspaper career, she has lived in New Mexico (twice), Maine, upstate New York, Arizona and, now, Virginia. Along the way, she has won dozens of journalism awards for news reporting, feature writing and opinion columns.

She now lives in Smithfield in a colonial cottage that predates the Revolution. She has a grown son, a dog, three cats and an English cottage garden. She gets her best writing ideas while jogging with the dog or cycling around Windsor Castle Park.