He said seeing Cecile was something whose time had come. That it had to be done.
-- Delphine (Cassius Clay Clouds paragraph 9)

Importance: When the novel begins, Delphine and her sisters are traveling to see their mother for the first time in seven years after their mother abandoned them. It is a trip insisted on by Pa, saying it is time for them to reestablish contact, and because Pa knows that young girls need a mother in their life.

Cecile Johnson – mammal birth giver, alive, an abandoner – is our mother. A statement of fact.
-- Delphine (Secret Agent Mother paragraph 4)

Importance: Delphine was five when Cecile left, so she is old enough to have some memories of her mother, and what a mother is supposed to do. Cecile’s leaving is a betrayal, and so Delphine especially detests her mother. The only way Delphine considers Cecile to be a mother is biologically, and in no other way.

I didn’t send for you. Didn...
-- Cecile (Green Stucco House paragraph 21)