Wish

The first time Charlie meets Howard Odom in class, he offers to help her with math, but all she can see is his red hair, unsightly black glasses, and his pronounced limp due to having a physical disability. The teacher assigns Howard to be Charlie’s buddy since she is new at school, but Charlie rejects Howard’s kindness, not because she is repulsed by his appearance, but because she doesn’t want anything to do with anyone in Colby. Bertha tells Charlie about Howard’s kind, gracious personality, but she also reveals that the kids at school are unkind to him: “Bless his heart. Good as gold, that boy is. Don’t bat an eye when kids poke fun at him, calling him names like Pogo” (17). Despite Charlie’s initial coldness to Howard, he eventually teaches her a lesson about anger management and encourages her to practice controlling her anger. Slowly, Howard begins to chisel through Charlie’s tough veneer, and before she even realizes it, Charlie finds herself sharing things with Howard about her family that she’s too embarrassed to tell others. The forging of their friendship is complete when Howard endears himself fully to Charlie by offering to help her find Wishbone, and when his carefully designed trap works, Charlie shares the joy of her new pet with Howard.

Beyond giving lessons in self-control, Howard also teaches Charlie about empathy, for although he never uses his physical disability or the bullying he experiences at school as an explicit object lesson for Charlie, his forbearance under constant bullying teaches her that she is not the only one with problems, and that there are many ways to handle them. As she observes about her friend, “The thing about Howard was, everything just rolled right off him. It seemed like nothing bothered him one little bit” (41). Although Charlie and Howard’s difficulties are not the same, through their friendship, they learn to share in each other’s burdens and support one another through the tough times. Howard becomes Charlie’s best friend, and his family becomes like her own as well. Through the Odoms’ generosity and hospitality, Charlie finally gets to see a healthy example of a true family. At first, she judges the Odoms’ home to be messy and disorganized, but the more time she spends with them, the more she learns to set aside her judgment and see through to their hearts. Howard and the entire Odom family teach Charlie to value others for their character, not for the quality of their home or possessions.

Bertha, a bold and personable Southern woman, is Charlie’s maternal aunt, but Bertha and her sister have been estranged for many years. However, despite this fact, she doesn’t hesitate to take in Carla’s youngest daughter when Carla can’t care for her. Bertha, always serving up something delicious to eat along with a good story, adds a layer of Southern charm and humor to the narrative. Charlie says, “It had been clear to me from day one that Bertha was a talker” (16). Although Bertha transparently admits to Charlie that she doesn’t know much about raising children, it is clear that Bertha has everything a person needs to be a good mother. She feeds Charlie’s body and her soul and offers gentle compassion whenever Charlie’s temper flares and causes her to make a mistake. She is tender with Charlie’s story and empathetic to her feelings of loss and abandonment. Even when Charlie explodes and calls her awful names, Bertha remains solid and teaches Charlie that a home can be a safe, secure place.

Charlie resists Bertha’s love at first, but when she realizes that her aunt holds the key to some of the mysteries about her mother, she allows herself to draw closer. While Bertha can’t answer all of Charlie’s questions about why her mother is unable to care for her, she does offer honesty and shares a few childhood stories that shed some light on her sister’s difficult personality. Charlie learns the difficult truth that Carla abandoned them when she was just a baby and came to Bertha for help. Through her aunt’s stories, Charlie understands the sad truth that her mother may never be able to parent her properly. Bertha never tries to take the place of Charlie’s mother, but she does try to show her the love and acceptance that a mother should give. Along with her husband Gus, Bertha offers Charlie a chance to thrive in a safe, secure environment without asking her to change or bend her personality to fit into their lifestyle. They bond in their grief, for Bertha lost her relationship with her sister just as Charlie has lost her relationship with her mother, and together, they work to build a new family with hope for the future.

Jackie is Charlie’s older sister who remains in Raleigh to finish high school. The reader first meets Jackie through Charlie’s eyes and their regular phone conversations. Jackie, at first glance, appears to be a normal teenager who desires independence from her family. Charlie sees Jackie as selfish and uncaring because she doesn’t ask about Charlie’s new life in Colby. Despite her jealousy, it is clear that Charlie still admires and loves Jackie, a fact that is exemplified by her decision to wear Jackie’s boots to school and her longing for Jackie’s phone calls. Jackie may hold some stereotypical teenage self-centeredness, but she is also carrying far more responsibility than her younger sister is. Living with a friend, working at Waffle House, and carrying the burden of visiting their father in prison all while trying to finish high school, Jackie is balancing a lot. Her enthusiasm for her new friends, new hair color, and new experiences represents the outflow of her desire to hold on to some part of her youth and independence even as she is grappling with the reality of becoming an adult. When Charlie’s temper finally flares and causes her to unleash all her frustration on Jackie before hanging up, Jackie calls her back immediately and offers empathy to her little sister. Unlike Charlie’s mother who later will hang up and not return the call, Jackie recognizes her sister’s need for compassion, listens to her concerns, and promises to visit.

However, when Jackie arrives in Colby, Charlie finds that her sister has changed and worries that Jackie will no longer wants to be her sister. As Charlie says to herself, “That Jackie was gone and in her place was this new Jackie with blue streaks in her hair” (156). However, Jackie’s hair color stands as an external expression of her personal style and her independence and has no bearing on her connection to her little sister. During her visit, Jackie connects with Bertha, Gus, and everyone in Colby, which is at first an annoyance to Charlie. Charlie’s annoyance reveals a deeper need to be close to her sister and to see the world through her eyes, for as she observes, “Jackie laughed her sparkly laugh, and in that very minute I wanted to be her” (167). O’Connor reveals a tender moment between the sisters as Jackie prepares to leave and Charlie asks Jackie to take her back home. In a rare moment of vulnerability, Charlie reveals the deep scars she carries from her family’s hardships and her desire to stay connected to her sister. Although Jackie ultimately cannot give Charlie the stable home she needs, she still encourages Charlie to embrace the gift of Bertha and Gus and all the beauty of Colby and understand that what she has been wishing for is right in front of her. Later, when Charlie fears that she may have to leave Colby, she realizes that her older sister is right. Jackie therefore serves as Charlie’s connection to her family of origin and her old life in Raleigh, and as an older voice of wisdom in Charlie’s life. Jackie and Charlie share the same trauma but react to it differently, displaying the reality that no two people will experience pain the same way.