What happens in Chapter 20 of Walk Two Moons?
Chapter 20, "Spit," focuses on Sal's recollection of her first meeting with Ben Finney at school in Euclid, Ohio. During a class activity, Ben unexpectedly kisses Sal on the cheek, leaving her startled and confused. Instead of feeling embarrassed or happy, Sal instinctively wipes the kiss away, a gesture of self-protection. This chapter also deepens the connection between Sal's narrative and Phoebe's, as Sal shares Phoebe's domestic struggles with her grandparents while they drive across the country. Tension in Phoebe's home is on the rise, with Mrs. Winterbottom becoming increasingly distracted and withdrawn, making her unhappiness more apparent to those around her. The enigmatic lunatic—the young man who keeps showing up at the Winterbottoms' door—comes up again in conversation, adding to the sense of unease. Meanwhile, Sal ponders the oddities of human connection, especially how people reach out to each other in ways that are often misunderstood or hard to accept. Though brief, the chapter is rich with sensory detail and emotional depth, using the charged moment of a kiss to raise questions about intimacy, loss, and the barriers Sal has quietly constructed around herself since her mother's departure.
Analysis
Sharon Creech's skill in "Spit" shines through her ability to transform the ordinary into emotional shorthand. The kiss Ben gives Sal on the cheek is a small moment, yet Creech surrounds it with the significance of a much deeper reckoning. Sal's instinctive act of wiping it away isn't played for laughs—it feels like a reaction shaped by grief, a body that has learned to be wary of tenderness. Creech leaves this unsaid; the subtlety is intentional.
The chapter title does quiet but important work. "Spit" suggests something that’s expelled, rejected, and involuntary—linking the erased kiss to a larger theme of what Sal struggles to hold onto: her mother, warmth, the everyday rhythms of family life. The word carries a slight disgust that Sal may not consciously recognize, but her body reacts to it.
Creech also employs a nested narrative structure—Sal narrating Phoebe's story to her grandparents—to create an effective tonal contrast. Phoebe's life is characterized by melodrama and outward expressions; Sal's experience is more internal and restrained. By placing their stories in conversation, Creech allows readers to sense the divide between Sal's performance of normalcy for others and the heavy burden she truly bears. Mrs. Winterbottom's clear unhappiness acts as a reflection that Sal isn't quite ready to confront directly. The chapter's brevity is a deliberate choice: Creech relies on this compression, allowing silence to convey what words cannot.
Key quotes from Chapter 20
“He kissed me on the cheek. I wiped it off.”
Sal recounts Ben's unexpected kiss in flat, declarative terms, her terse narration revealing more about her emotional guardedness than any elaboration could.
“I didn't know why I wiped it off. I just did.”
Sal's admission of her own opacity to herself underscores Creech's recurring theme that grief reshapes instinct in ways the grieving person cannot fully explain.
“Mrs. Winterbottom looked as if she wanted to be somewhere else entirely.”
Sal's observation of Phoebe's mother captures the quiet desperation that mirrors, at a safe narrative distance, Sal's own mother's restlessness before she left.
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