Beyond That, the Sea

Rose heads to Hyannis for the weekend with a group of girlfriends. She loves the Kennedys and is hoping to run into one of them in town. They drive past the Kennedys’ house, and the women sigh at how beautiful it is. At one time, Rose hoped to buy a house there, despite William wanting to buy back his family’s old house in Maine. Now they have no money to do either. Rose imagines Jackie Kennedy relaxing inside with staff to take care of her house and kids. As they drive away, Rose looks back, thinking about how this is the life she once pictured for herself.

Millie prepares for her 55th birthday as her partner, George, arrives with packages, and Beatrix arrives with flowers and cake. George and Beatrix get along well. Millie asks why Sam, the man Beatrix is dating, won’t be attending, and George intervenes before the mother and daughter begin bickering again as usual. As Beatrix heads upstairs to help George with his clothes, Millie peeks into the cake box and is amazed at the beautiful cake Beatrix has baked for her. She reflects on how, despite this, she feels farther away from Beatrix than she ever did when Beatrix was in the US.

William, Rose, and the kids have Christmas lunch with Rose’s family. William feels comfortable with them because they don’t judge him even though he doesn’t quite fit in. Afterward, William and Rose head to Nancy’s with the kids. Rose complains that she’s tired and full and lies down for a nap as soon as they arrive, which delights Nancy, who doesn’t like Rose much.

Kathleen finds place cards in the sideboard that Bea made years ago, with everyone’s names on them. The family tells Kathleen about Bea, and William is surprised to learn that Gerald is still in touch with her. Gerald shows Kathleen a framed photograph of Bea, Gerald, and William. Kathleen runs off to make new and updated place cards for the family. When no one’s looking, William slips Bea’s place cards into his pocket and later keeps Bea’s name card folded in his wallet.

Beatrix opens a box that Nancy sent a while ago. The box contains large, framed watercolor paintings by Ethan, both with scenes of Maine, and a third, smaller framed oil painting of a couple dancing in a hall, which Beatrix thinks is the Gregorys. She hangs it in her vestibule and puts the larger ones in her hall but replaces them again with some older art, not wanting to think or talk about the Gregorys anymore. Beatrix writes to Nancy, asking about the smaller painting; Nancy’s letter in response doesn’t mention it at all.

Almost 10 years have passed since Ethan died. Nancy has visited his grave every day since; today, she’s taking Jack with her. He’s seven, born a couple years after Ethan’s death, and Nancy wants Jack to know his grandfather. They find the grave, and she introduces Jack to Ethan, prompting her grandson to ask any question he wants about Ethan. Nancy is pleasantly surprised and moved to tears when Jack reveals he knows all about Ethan because William tells Jack stories about Ethan every night.

After 12 years at a dead-end job, William knows how to simply exist in it. He slips away on his lunch breaks to take in things like the Museum of Fine Art or a boat tour around Boston Harbor. Some months ago, he and Rose decided that every other Saturday night, they’d do things on their own, while their respective families took turns watching the children. One Saturday evening, William heads up to the Revere, the new ballroom that has opened, while Rose heads out with her girlfriends. Neither tells the other where they’re really going.

Gerald brings home Linda, the woman he has been seeing, for Thanksgiving. William claims that Rose couldn’t make it because she’s taking care of her mother, but Gerald knows this is a lie. William reminisces about Thanksgivings from their childhood and about that time of their lives in general, but Gerald asserts that he doesn’t miss it; he’s surer of who he is now. In addition, William reminisces about Bea and her first Thanksgiving in the US. He tells Linda how Gerald had a crush on her, which enrages Gerald. As they head to dinner, William wishes Bea were there, while Gerald feels “tired of thinking about the past” (242).

Millie tries to talk to Beatrix over a dinner date about why she and Sam broke up, but Beatrix isn’t forthcoming. Millie still feels distant from Beatrix. For over a year after she left George, Millie barely saw Beatrix, who was furious and disappointed about the end of her mother’s third marriage.

Millie asks about the Gregorys, and Beatrix gives her a few brief updates. She reveals that Nancy always looked up to Millie for how she held down two jobs while taking care of Reginald. After Reginald died, Nancy was extremely upset and brought Beatrix sugar cookies for lunch for a month straight. Millie recognizes and acknowledges this aloud as an act of genuine love. She suggests a mother-daughter trip to New York and Boston to visit the Gregorys. Beatrix agrees to New York but doesn’t want to go to Boston, saying, “That’s not my life anymore. My life is here” (246).

Rose drops the kids off at her mother’s on the night of Valentine’s Day. She has stopped going out on Saturdays, mostly staying home reading, taking long baths, and waiting for William to return, though she still doesn’t know where he goes. She has thought about leaving him but still loves him and knows divorce won’t be good for the children.

She settles down to watch Jackie Kennedy’s White House tour on CBS. Surprisingly, William comes home with a bouquet of yellow roses for her and joins her to watch the special. Afterward, Rose says she didn’t like the president’s dismissiveness of girls, and William notes he has always been this way. He quotes Shakespeare, saying, “What’s past is prologue” (250). Rose heads up to bed, and William claims he’ll be up soon, but she knows he’ll still be stretched out on the couch in the morning.

Beatrix meets Robert, a man she has been seeing for a year, in a bar. Robert was also sent to the US during the war but had a different experience than her: His host family sent him to boarding school. They’re visiting London, and Robert and Bea discuss the places he must take them to. Additionally, Robert suggests that Beatrix go see a baseball game during her trip to New York.

William takes his children to Gloucester for the day to spend time near the ocean. As they eat lobster for lunch, he tells them about the house in Maine and stories of eating lobster there during his childhood.

Nancy looks through her jewelry and takes out the emerald ring she inherited from her mother. She gives it to Gerald for Linda, and he protests, saying they aren’t thinking of marriage. However, to pacify her, Gerald takes the ring from Nancy to hold onto and have ready when the time comes.

For the first time since 1945, Beatrix wraps Christmas gifts to send the Gregorys: a cane for Nancy, a chess set for Gerald, and a Mantle bobblehead for William that she bought at a baseball game in New York. She wrestles with what to write in the accompanying note, finally settling on admitting that she was in the US but William shouldn’t hold it against her, as he almost did the same to her in Europe.

Gerald stops by Nancy’s house on a Sunday morning to shovel her front walk. He settles down to read the newspaper. After spending time with Linda in Baltimore the previous summer, he became passionate about civil rights and has been thinking about how to continue that work here.

William arrives for a coffee, and Gerald realizes that William never made it home the previous night. William asks Gerald if he has heard from Bea since Christmas, and Gerald realizes that William is still in love with her. He asks whether William ever visited her in Europe and reveals that he knows of their time in the woods, having seen them the last day in Maine. When William denies this and meeting Bea in London, Gerald is angry at the lie. Nancy comes downstairs, surprised and happy to see both her boys, and persuades them to accompany her to church.

After the trip to the US, Millie hasn’t stopped thinking about Nancy, realizing that Nancy’s openness is just an American trait. She writes Nancy a letter and receives a warm, friendly reply with news about the boys. Millie tells Beatrix about the letter when they meet to walk, as they’ve begun doing. They discuss the Gregorys, and Beatrix slowly opens up about her US life, eventually confessing that she sometimes forgot about her parents. Millie finally reveals that it was Reginald’s decision to send Beatrix away but says she now knows it was the right decision because Beatrix was safe and happy there: “The whole point was for [her] to forget” (272). As they walk back, Millie looks forward to replying to Nancy.

Early one Sunday morning, a policeman arrives at Rose’s place to inform her that William died in a car accident as he was heading home. He offers to bring Rose’s brother over, and Rose accepts, waiting for him to arrive and break the news to the children.