The Beet Queen

Since the incident with Karl, Sita has stopped speaking, and consequently Louis has placed her in a psychiatric ward. Louis assures her that this is a place where she can learn how to function again and that she will then be able to come home. Sita notices that the doctors peruse the many notebooks that Louis has kept throughout the years, recording her episodes. Frightened and furious, she tries to write out her thoughts to the nurses, who refuse to read them because they are trying to force her to talk again.

When she meets her roommate, a white-haired old woman, Sita begins to calm down—that is, until the woman pronounces that “[i]t’s terrible to eat human flesh” (208). Horrified, Sita refuses dinner, writes more notes that are rejected, and resists sleep. The next morning, she writes another note—she wants to call her husband. The moment Louis answers, Sita yells at him to get her out of this place: “I’m cured” (212).

Mary calls to tell Celestine that the butcher shop and her living quarters have been damaged in an electrical fire (213). She stays with Celestine for several months while renovations are being made. Mary irritates her with her palm reading and other arcane nonsense, and Dot is becoming even more of a disruptive presence. Still, both Mary and Celestine shower Dot with attention and compete over her affections.

Dot is chosen to play Joseph in the annual Christmas play. Celestine and Mary are proud, if puzzled, and plan to contribute dishes to the potluck supper afterward. In the days leading up to the play, Mary sticks close to Dot, and Celestine becomes jealous. Dot has a crush on one of the boys who play the donkey, but she has only told Mary, not her mother. So, Celestine decides to call Wallace to accompany her to the play, where she intends to ignore Mary—and to enact some revenge.

As the play opens, Celestine is impressed with Dot’s costume and bearing. However, when Dot reaches down to pat the head of the donkey, it rears back. Dot retaliates by knocking the donkey in the head with her prop, a dangerous-looking maul. The play ends abruptly, and Dot flees. Celestine and Mary drive the streets of Argus searching for her. When they find her, Mary tries to get in between Celestine and Dot, but Dot runs past her to her mother. Later, after Dot has gone to sleep, the two women discuss the night’s events. Celestine confesses that she brought a special dish to the potluck: a Jell-O mold filled with nuts and bolts, with Mary’s name on it. Mary leaves abruptly, and Celestine considers, for the first time, that she has actually hurt her friend’s feelings.

Adelaide and Omar are still together. Adelaide is building up to another of her violent fits of anger, and Omar is tiptoeing around her. He has learned through the years that she will eventually come back to herself. He goes out to feed the birds, which have become a tourist attraction for travelers staying at the nearby resorts. When he returns, Adelaide is nearly finished sweeping up a pile of broken glass. She looks tired and scared. He reaches out to take the cup of coffee from her trembling hands.

Wallace is painfully aware that Dot’s mother and aunt give her too much attention and that she is spoiled almost rotten as a result. He dislikes her self-centered behavior and uncontrollable outbursts, but he also admires her: “She feared nothing” (233). This is a quality he lacks, and it continues to draw him into Dot’s life. One year, Dot decides to run away, and Wallace is proud that she comes to him first. However, when she reveals her plan to live with her father, Karl, Wallace dismisses it with swift and harsh words, calling her delusional for believing that Karl would want her. He can see that this will only drive Dot away, but, stung by his own rejection at Karl’s hands, he cannot help himself. Before Dot can run off, Celestine barges in and retrieves her. Narrating these events from some years in the future, Wallace recalls that he will fail her again, even more dramatically, later that year.

Wallace recounts the events of the Christmas play from his point of view. He looks forward to seeing Dot as Saint Joseph. However, when she walks onstage wearing his old brown robe and a fake beard, Wallace sees Karl’s face. He had never thought she resembled her father before, and now the resemblance sends him into an emotional tailspin. Still, he stays for the potluck, where he crunches down on a bolt tucked into one of the Jell-O salads. The principal remarks that the nametag on the dish must have fallen off, so they do not know who pulled such a mean-spirited prank. Dot arrives at his house later, seeking comfort after the disastrous events at the play, but Wallace tells her to leave. He cannot see Karl’s face again.

After that, Dot freezes Wallace out of her life. He decides to throw an elaborate birthday party for her to win back her affections. The theme will be a Hawaiian-style luau, complete with a pineapple-covered ham and tropical drinks. Tensions are high at the party, as Mary is displeased that Wallace has also invited Sita and Louis. She criticizes his store-bought ham, and he decides to make her a couple of very strong drinks to help her relax.

Under the influence of the drinks, Mary transforms into an insanely friendly version of herself, offering Wallace ham at wholesale prices and trying to drag the retiring Sita into the party. She shorts out Wallace’s doorbell in the process and dances manically to the ringing. She then turns on the electric cake stand to high speed, flinging the lit candles and cake all over the place—primarily onto Sita. Dot declares it “’the best birthday ever!’” (251). After everyone has left, as Mary comes out of her drunken stupor, she tells Wallace she knows how lonely he is. She suggests he should marry Celestine.

Back in Argus, Karl calls Wallace but cannot bring himself to speak to him. Then, he calls Celestine, who is upset that he has come back: Dot is now 14 years old and has never met her father. He insists he wants to see her, and Celestine reluctantly agrees.

At a restaurant breakfast the next morning, Karl is startled to see Dot wearing makeup. They both size each other up with wariness. To alleviate the tension, Celestine mentions that Dot once wanted to run away and find him. Karl mentions that he might decide to settle down somewhere close and that he might want to see Dot more often. She is unresponsive. He offers to send her records if she will listen to them. She gives him an ambiguous answer at best.