Elizabeth is Missing

Birds represent the menace that the mad woman and Frank pose to Sukey and Maud.

Both Sukey and Maud are afraid of the mad woman. Maud describes the moment she saw the mad woman outside of Douglas’ window: “a flurry of birds dived from the dark of the hedge, and I turned just in time to catch the shape of a woman scurrying away” (22). Later, while visiting Sukey at Frank’s house, Maud encounters the mad woman again when she hears “that rustling in the hedge, that blackbirdish noise, and again felt the inexplicable shiver of dread” (76).

Maud compares both the mad woman and her umbrella to birds. The mad woman’s umbrella is “a shabby inky thing, half unfurled in a way that made it look like an injured bird” (28). At the end of the book, a confused Maud claims that the mad woman “was really a bird and flew about my sister’s head” (301).

Sukey describes the glass dome of stuffed birds that Frank brings home as “horrid” (73) and says she “‘can’t shake the idea’” (74) that they are going to hurt her. She says, “I can just hear it […] The glass breaking and the blighters fluttering out, flapping their wings, coming to peck my eyes out” (74).

When Maud thinks about the bird comb she gave Sukey the last time she saw her, she regrets giving her something that looked like the stuffed birds she feared: “I wished more than anything to speak to her about that. To tell her I hadn’t meant any harm” (164).

Sukey’s premonitions about the birds come true: The glass dome full of stuffed birds becomes the instrument of her death. The stuffed birds are buried with Sukey in Elizabeth’s garden, and their skeletons are recovered along with Sukey’s.

When a young Maud discovers Sukey’s favorite records smashed after her sister disappears, she wonders if they are a clue to what happened to Sukey. Maud tries unsuccessfully to fit the jagged black pieces back together.

The broken records are like the clues young Maud gathers as she tries to solve the mystery of Sukey’s disappearance: She has separate clues and is unable to put them together to solve the entire puzzle.

The records are also a metaphor for Maud’s shattered memory: She is unable to put her memories back together in a way that makes sense.

Summer squash first appears in the Prologue when Maud discovers Sukey’s broken compact in Elizabeth’s garden and asks her friend Elizabeth, “Did you ever grow summer squash?” (2). Maud knows that summer squash is important, but she’s unsure how it relates to the item she’s just dug up. Later, Maud creates a list to help herself remember: “I make a note under a list which starts: Compact, summer squash” (96).

Like Sukey, the mad woman understands that summer squash is an important clue. When Maud encounters her in the beach hut after Sukey disappears, the mad woman includes summer squash in a series of jumbled clues about Sukey’s disappearance: “I could hear a voice from within, whispering. Whispering about glass smashing and birds flying. Whispering about a van and soil and summer squash” (117).

When she was a young woman, Maud saw a man in his front yard shouting that his rival had dug up his summer squash. Maud noticed the mad woman nearby and assumed she stole the squash because she was hungry. However, Maud later realizes that the mad woman was looking for something.

When the mad woman is hit by a car in front of Maud’s house, she hands Maud a flower just before she dies: “It was a flower from a squash plant, dry and faded and falling apart, like an old gramophone horn” (264). The squash blossom is the mad woman’s attempt to help Maud solve the mystery of Sukey’s disappearance.

Many years later, when Maud realizes that Elizabeth lives in the house where Frank helped plant summer squash, Maud invites herself to tea:

I got to know Elizabeth because of some summer squash. The first time I met her she told me her garden wall had pebbles cemented to the top and I knew exactly where she lived. It was the house with the garden, where more than sixty years ago, some squash had been dug up during the night. And, I don’t know why, but I wanted to have a look in that garden, so I got myself invited round for tea (18).

Later, confused in her neighborhood shop, Maud notices that she’s written the word “summer squash” on her shopping list. When she returns home, she is preoccupied by thoughts of summer squash. She repeatedly asks Helen, who is a professional gardener, “If I were to grow summer squash […] where would I best plant them?” (10).

At the end of the novel, Maud finally puts all the clues together: “She disappeared and they built those houses. And Frank brought tons of soil to lay over the gardens and he planted things there. And the summer squash were nearly ruined after someone was in the garden. Digging” (283).