Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, physical abuse, and addiction.

Mo, age 11, is the protagonist and narrator of the story. She is a go-getter, a fighter, and a resilient spirit who came to Tupelo Landing during a hurricane. Mo’s mother tied her to a bulletin board to save her life, and the Colonel was the one who found her. She considers herself “three times lucky” because her mother saved her, then the Colonel saved her, and then Miss Lana took them both in (29). He and Miss Lana adopted Mo, and they have been a family ever since: “I am bereft of kin by fate, as Miss Lana puts it, washed into my current, rather odd life by Forces Unknown” (2-3). 

In the beginning, Mo prioritizes finding her biological mother, who she calls her “Upstream Mother,” by creating message bottles and sending them downstream with the hope that her mother will find one of them. Mo is also in the process of creating autobiographies of her life, which she compiles in volumes in an attempt to better understand herself. Mo also spends a great deal of time nurturing her bond with her best friend, Dale.