Ms. Bixby's Last Day

The final section of Ms. Bixby’s Last Day focuses to a great extent on the reality lingering in the background of the first two sections of the narrative. It is in this section that the narrators encounter first the distinct possibility, then the reality, of their beloved teacher’s death, reflecting the book’s theme about Early Adolescents Encountering Death and Dying. Throughout the storyline, and particularly through their quest to see Maggie in the hospital, the three students have experiences that they have never encountered before. These students have never skipped school before. They have never conspired to do something their parents know nothing about before. They have never engaged with random adults, negotiating the prices of cheesecakes or persuading people to purchase alcohol for them or convincing a nurse that it is okay for them to visit a desperately ill hospital patient. This excursion for Topher, Steve, and Brand is replete with first-time experiences. The ultimate first-time experience that Topher and Steve must deal with, however, is the terminal illness of someone they love (Brand has already experienced the death of his mother). The random questions and comments made by other students in the classroom as they ask questions of Maggie and then of Principal McNair and Ms. Brownlee reveal the foreignness of the world of mortality to these young people.

In this respect, the three narrators—despite their intrinsic differences from one another—seem better situated than the other students to deal with the reality Maggie faces. This is part of the reason they are so intent on seeing her one last time. Reflecting the theme of Persistence in the Face of Futility, they recognize going in that their hopes of a full recovery for Maggie may not occur. The author foreshadows this throughout the narrative. For example, Maggie’s assurances of a full recovery when she describes her illness to her students are a typical literary device that foreshadows an opposite development: The teacher says everything will be alright, implying that this will not be the case. There are other subtle indications of what is coming. For instance, the last time she reads from The Hobbit she places the book on her seat and leaves it there. The author describes this scene as revealing that the unfinished book remains on the chair but the teacher who reads it—including voicing the characters—is gone. This not only implies the absence of Maggie but also the significance of the book, which mirrors the quest made by the three narrators.

It is when the boys enter the hospital, go up to her room, and then lead her to the park for their picnic in Chapters 12 through 14, that the boys become emblematic of Early Adolescents Encountering Death and Dying. The stunning first moment they see her sets the stage for what they are about to experience, for they do not recognize their teacher until she smiles at them. They know quickly she does not sound the same, look the same, or feel the same. Climbing the hill to the picnic, she must rest and catch her breath, advising the boys that she no longer has endurance. It is as they walk toward their picnic rendezvous that Topher captures the essence of what is changing, of hopes remaining unrealized, when he ventures:

Turns out real life isn’t like the movies. Life doesn’t come all the way back around again. It’s not a straight line either. It angles and curves, shoots off a little, twists and turns, but it never gets right back to the place it started (273).

This is Topher’s expression of the awareness that they are in the process of successfully achieving their goal, though, like every step of the quest, what they anticipated was not what occurred. As they sit atop the hill enjoying the presence of their teacher, for the first time they recognize the gravity of the challenge she faces and the great likelihood that she will not overcome the disease. While the boys’ youth shines through in their preparations and in their childlike eagerness, they demonstrate a new, profound understanding of the situation through what they do not say. They allow to speak for them the weight of the moment and their simple symbolic acts in sharing the cheesecake and listening to Maggie reading The Hobbit. For Maggie, this is her ability to listen to others turned back upon her: The boys remembered the things she said she wanted and provided those for her last day. For the boys this is a time of preparatory grief, so that, when Abe reports Maggie’s death to them, they grieve but understand.

Various expressions of emotional intimacy appear throughout the narrative, despite all the hijinks of the narrators—the emotional outbursts, anxiety, disappointment, and fights. This quality of shared, tender affection crops up in numerous relationships, often unexpectedly. For instance, after their meeting with Maggie, when the three narrators return to Fox Ridge, Topher hands his portrait of Maggie—which he intended to give to her—over to Brand, as an expression of conciliation and of recognition of the closeness between Brand and Maggie. In McDonald’s, after Steve demands loudly that his sister not to tell his mother he skipped school, he and Christina have a moment of intimate rapprochement unlike anything Steve has experienced with her. There is also the reaffirmation of long-time friends in their commitment to each other, as when Topher and Steve shake hands at the pond, Steve promising he will never allow Topher to get married.

Each of the three narrators also has a distinct moment of intimacy with Maggie. As Steve departs her classroom after conferring with his father, she touches her fingertips to his, quoting the movie E. T. and simultaneously affirming Steve’s worthiness. After explaining to Topher that she keeps the work of special students and showing him her secret collection of his drawings, Maggie expresses her admiration for his work and asks permission to keep his art. Standing in the hospital waiting room with Brand, Maggie bends close to him and describes the goodness she finds in him that sets him apart. In a narrative that deals to a large extent with loss, grief and despair, Anderson includes many instances of emotional intimacy to impart a sense of hope.