Beyond That, the Sea

After Nancy leaves William’s room, Bea goes to see him, knocking on the door in a code that Gerald once made up. William expresses his desire to do more and reveals that he’s counting down the days until he can enlist. Bea points out that he won’t be able to enlist for a long time and that he needs to focus on other things now. She promises to help him with the lawn mowing business in Maine.

The night before the family leaves for Maine, Ethan and Nancy have an argument: He insists that she needs to stop giving Gerald and Bea baths since they’re now 11 and 13. Ethan finds it odd that Nancy bathes a girl who isn’t even their daughter, and he suggests that Bea might want Nancy to stop but doesn’t know how to say so. Furious, Nancy retorts that she knows how to raise her children, but Ethan points out that Bea isn’t her child and will return to her own parents one day. Ethan knows it’s a cruel thing to say because Nancy has fallen in love with Bea, but he doesn’t want her to be heartbroken when Bea leaves.

Millie’s mother, Gertrude, gives Millie money, insisting that she visit Beatrix, but Millie refuses, insisting that travel isn’t safe. Later that night, Millie embraces Reginald in bed, and they discuss their worries about how Beatrix must be doing. Reginald reassures Millie that Beatrix is fine. Together, they try to picture what things might look like if they visited her in Boston, and as he imagines Beatrix beautiful and happy, Reginald knows that this is “not a fantasy. It is the truth” (84).

It’s the second anniversary of Bea’s arrival, and Nancy is making a feast. Gerald feels bored and left out because Bea and William have been off doing things together all summer. As Nancy cooks, Gerald decides to swim around the island without telling anyone. Nancy spots him on the floating deck and yells at him to come back in, furious that he swam alone. However, she relents when she sees how bored he is and asks him to help her cook, making him promise to keep what happened a secret from Ethan.

Millie sits in a hospital waiting room as Reginald lies in a coma a few rooms away, following a sudden heart attack.

Nancy receives the telegram with news of Reginald’s death and is distraught. Ethan forbids her from telling Bea, saying he’ll handle it when he gets home after work. Nancy usually does what Ethan tells her—she has even stopped giving Bea baths—but believes Ethan is wrong about this and is jealous of his relationship with Bea. After the kids come home from school, Millie breaks the news to Bea alone.

William lies awake listening to Bea sniffling. She hasn’t cried much since her father died, but she has become withdrawn. He knocks on the door, asking how he can help. Bea asserts that there’s nothing to do: Her father is dead, and she can’t even go to the funeral. William suggests that they have a funeral for Reginald anyway, just the two of them; the side door of the chapel is always open. Bea agrees, and William later contemplates how it “frightens him, sometimes, how he longs for her approval” (94).

Bea invites Gerald to the funeral. The three sneak out at night to go to the chapel, and Bea swears Gerald to secrecy. They stand at the front of the chapel and say their goodbyes to Reginald together. Afterward, William finds some whiskey, and they all take sips, toasting Bea’s father.

Reginald’s colleague takes his things over to Millie’s after the funeral, who stashes them away and doesn’t do anything for months. Finally, in February, Julia convinces Millie to clear out Reginald’s stuff and helps her with it. Millie finds the letters from Ethan, and, angry that Reginald kept them from her, she initially goes to cut them into pieces until Julia stops her. Later, Millie finds the postcard with the chessboard; Reginald and Ethan were in the middle of a game.

Nancy takes the children to New York for Easter, needing a change. Bea, especially, has grown more independent and distant since Reginald’s death. While discussing shopping in New York, Bea mentions that other girls at school are wearing different underwear, and Millie realizes that she needs to take Bea lingerie shopping. In addition, Nancy promises to pick some things up so that Bea is prepared when her period arrives.

The three kids visit Columbia University, where William wants to go. Gerald points out the family legacy is Harvard, but this is precisely why William doesn’t want to go there. He suggests looking at Barnard for Bea, but she asserts that university isn’t in the cards for her—neither of her parents attended university, and once the war is over, she’ll go back home. Gerald and William both agree that Bea ought to go anyway given how smart she is. For the first time, William is struck by the reality that Bea will be leaving them one day.

Nancy and the kids have been away for a week, and Ethan savors the space and quiet. He reflects on when he and Nancy got together in college and how taken in he was by her openness and easy smile; the same things now grate on him. He misses the relationship between them before the children.

Ethan tidies up the house before Nancy and the kids arrive and then looks through the mail he has received. He finds the chessboard card, on which Millie has made a poor move and written a note about how she’s still learning. Ethan makes a substandard move in return, telling himself that “this is the right thing to do” (111).

After William comes home inebriated one day, his parents decide to send him and Gerald to summer camp for three weeks. Gerald is distraught and doesn’t want to go, and Bea tries to console him. They talk about Bea’s dad, and she confides that she sometimes still talks to Reginald, knowing that Gerald will never judge her. The two wonder what happens after people die, and Gerald hopes there is something after death so that Bea can be reunited with Reginald. She’s touched and kisses him on the cheek, and Gerald turns bright red. He asserts that he loves Maine and wants to live here forever with the family he has some day; Bea agrees that it’s “the best place in the world” (115).

On the one-year anniversary of Reginald’s death, Millie visits his grave and fills him in on all the news about Beatrix and about how Millie is moving into a new flat. She doesn’t tell him that she’s going on a double date with Julia and a pair of fighter pilots. Millie’s communication with Ethan ceased after the last postcard came back with chess moves redacted because authorities intercepted the mail, suspecting it was possibly code.

Bea attends a New Year’s Eve party at the Emerys’. As midnight approaches, everyone heads to the ballroom, but Bea hides from a boy who is trying to kiss her. Suddenly, a voice whispers out to her, and she realizes that it’s Gerald, who has come to keep her company. He informs her that the Gregorys, including William and a girl, are all dancing in the ballroom, and Bea convinces him to head there and watch. As the clock strikes 12, Bea and Gerald hold hands and wish each other a happy new year.

Later, Bea rides home in William’s car. She asks about the girl, and William admits they aren’t exclusive. He reveals that he was looking for her, and Bea explains that she was hiding from Nathan. William and Bea compliment each other on how nice they look all dressed up. As she gets undressed that night, Bea catches a whiff of William on her scarf and presses it to her face.

Nancy tells Bea about her early life. She grew up in a fancy house with maids and butlers, but that lifestyle wasn’t possible after she married Ethan. The house they live in isn’t even theirs; it belongs to the faculty and will pass on to some other family after their time. The house in Maine is theirs, but Nancy doesn’t tell Bea that maintaining the island is too costly for the family; Ethan has been talking about selling it. Instead, Millie tells Bea that she worries about what will happen when William and Gerald take over.

Bea wanders the house, seeing it in a different light after learning that it doesn’t belong to the Gregorys. She wonders what it must be like to live in just one place for one’s whole life. She has already lived in two and will return to a different flat when she finally goes home. She wanders into Nancy and Ethan’s bedroom and then Gerald’s before finally walking into William’s room and falling asleep on his bed. William appears and berates her for being in his room, and Bea leaves, irritated that he’s treating her like “some girl.” She drafts a letter to Millie asking to return but never sends it, unsure whether she’s really ready to leave.

Millie marries Tommy, the fighter pilot she dated, who is handsome and nine years younger than her. She doesn’t love him but likes him well enough, and their sex life is great. She hasn’t told Bea yet, though, because she thinks her daughter will disapprove of her marrying a younger man, like so many others do. Millie resolves to tell Bea in her next letter.

Gerald traces the progress of the Battle of the Bulge in the newspaper, as he has been doing the past month. It’s the only way he’ll be involved in the war: He doesn’t want to fight; he wants to go to college, perhaps in California.

When Nancy comes in, Gerald tells her that it looks like the beginning of the end and wonders what that will mean for Bea. Nancy assures him that the war isn’t over yet and that even when it is, travel will be limited. However, Gerald knows that Nancy also worries about Bea leaving. Gerald feels closer to her than anyone in the family, especially because William has drifted apart from the family and things are always tense with him. Gerald will be truly alone if Bea leaves, so every night he prays that she doesn’t have to.

William receives an acceptance letter from Harvard but rejections from Columbia and Yale, which he applied to in secret. The war in Europe is winding down, so enlisting isn’t an option anymore. William visits Bea in her room to tell her the news, but she’s frosty toward him and angry that he’s throwing away an opportunity at a top school. She points out that the family doesn’t have enough money for him to travel because his parents have been having financial difficulties. William thinks over what Bea says and visits her room again after dinner. She’s irritated, but he tells her that he misses her, and her expression reveals that he has finally said the right thing.

For weeks, Bea and William sneak out of the house to lie in the hammock together. One night after dinner, William pulls her into the pantry and kisses her, and the next morning he slips her a note saying to meet him at the cemetery. The same morning, Bea receives a letter from her mother, to whom she still hasn’t replied after Millie wrote of her marriage to Tommy six weeks ago. Millie reveals that Tommy has connections and is figuring out the process of bringing Bea home.

Bea doesn’t want to go back; she wants to finish school here, go to university, and be with William. However, she knows she can’t because this whole arrangement is temporary. The house has been tense: William fights with his parents about Harvard; even Gerald has been distant, as if angry with Bea. She rereads her mother’s letter and then tears it into little pieces before heading out to meet William.

Tommy secures Beatrix a seat on a ship leaving New York in less than three weeks. Millie suggests that she’ll go down to Southampton alone, as she wants to meet Beatrix by herself. This angers Tommy, who leaves the house, slamming the door behind him, and Millie regrets marrying him.

On the mainland, Ethan receives a telegram about Bea’s departure, six days before she’s due to leave. He rows back to the island in tears, reluctant to deliver the news.

Nancy is flustered by the news because the family will have to start packing immediately to leave Maine. Ethan urges her to sit, and she collapses onto his lap. Knowing that she’d be too overcome with tears to break the news to Bea, Nancy asks Ethan to tell Bea.

Gerald follows Bea everywhere, reluctant to let her out of his sight. He asks her if she wants to go back, and she confesses that she’s not ready but has no choice. She promises to visit and makes Gerald promise to write letters. He asks to keep a framed photograph of her with him and William, from her bedside table. She agrees on the condition that they trade it back and forth each time they meet.

William looks through the photo book that Bea made for him with the story of her life. They’ll meet in the woods later that night, but she has made him promise to keep their relationship a secret. She has also convinced him to go to Harvard, and he’s finally excited and ready to start something new. Now, however, his stomach hurts, and he feels Bea’s imminent departure like a physical ache.

Bea stands on the deck of the ship after dinner, watching the ocean. All she wants is for the ship to turn back. On their last night in the woods, she urged William to forget about her and move on because staying connected would be difficult with so much distance between them. Back in her bunk, she pulls out the photo book that William returned to her, with his own pictures inserted throughout, and looks through it.