“Good Morning”
Bones & All“Good Morning” is a recurring song in Maren’s memories of her mother, turning a cheerful wake-up into a small but revealing measure of their unsettled life together. Its familiar melody carries both the warmth of a shared ritual and a sadness Maren notices before she can explain it.
The Song as a Repeated Ritual
Some mornings, after Maren and her mother had stayed in one place long enough to begin forgetting what came before, her mother woke her by singing the song from Singin’ in the Rain. The refrain began, “Good morning, good moooooooorning! We’ve talked the whole night through…” Yet the song never sounded entirely carefree: Maren remembers that her mother always seemed sad as she sang it. The contrast between the buoyant greeting and the singer’s subdued tone makes the expression more than a cheerful routine.
The Sixteenth-Birthday Morning
On May 30, a Saturday, Maren’s mother came into her room singing. The two had planned a full day together, and Maren, still hugging her pillow, asked, “Why do you always sing it like that?” Her mother flung open the curtains and smiled with her eyes closed against the sunshine before asking, “Like what?” Maren answered, “Like you would’ve rather gone to bed at a reasonable hour.” Her mother laughed, sat at the foot of the bed, and rubbed Maren’s knee through the duvet before wishing her a happy birthday. Maren had not seen her so happy in a long time.
Meaning in Retrospect
The birthday becomes a concentrated memory of closeness: the morning song leads into chocolate-chip pancakes, a gift of The Lord of the Rings in a three-volume edition and a Barnes & Noble gift card, a day spent at the bookstore, and dinner at an Italian restaurant. The song’s ordinary greeting is thus attached to a day Maren remembers in precise, affectionate detail. Its earlier sadness remains part of the recollection, however, so the bright birthday scene does not erase the unease she had heard in the repeated ritual.
