Only the Beautiful

The narrative shifts back to Rosie’s earlier time with the Calverts. On Rosie’s birthday, Celine gives her a box of chocolates. Despite her appreciation of the gesture, Rosie realizes that she doesn’t want to spend her next birthday here; all she really wants is to move on with her life. Realizing that she will need more money to set out on her own, she volunteers to take on extra work at the vineyard by helping Truman as an assistant in the tasting room. A few weeks later, Celine accepts an invitation from an old friend to spend the weekend away while Wilson comes home on break from college with a new girlfriend. Wilson and the girl only stay for a short while before leaving again, and later that evening, Truman invites Rosie to sit with him in the parlor.

They listen to music that Truman says Celine doesn’t like, and they drink sherry and whiskey late into the night. Truman suggests that they dance to the music, and Rosie begins to feel strange. She states, “He was staring at me in unmistakable awe and envy, one arm still around my waist” (113). Suddenly, Truman leans in to kiss Rosie, and although she initially kisses him back, she tries to pull away as she realizes his true intentions. An inebriated Truman prevents Rosie from breaking away, and he rapes her. The moment is over quickly, and Rosie instantly feels horror over what has occurred. Truman tells her that nobody can ever know what happened, and he apologizes to her.

The narrative returns to the present moment. In the dormitory, Belle tries to calm Rosie, who has gone into labor. The nurse soon takes Rosie to the maternity ward. Rosie’s labor progresses quickly, and later that morning, she gives birth to a little girl whom she names Amaryllis. Knowing that her daughter will soon be taken away from her, Rosie cradles Amaryllis, and her narrative states, “The minutes I am allowed seem to condense to mere seconds as the two of us—mother and daughter—stare at each other, eye to eye. Every time I say her name, I am making a promise. I will come for you” (120). Rosie rests and is later taken to a different wing of the building, but before she goes, she overhears Dr. Townsend and a nurse discussing the need to bring Rosie back for the procedure that will sterilize her and prevent her from bearing any more children. Rosie determines that she and Belle will have to go through with their planned escape so that she can avoid being subjected to this surgery.

The narrative shifts back to Rosie’s earlier time with the Calverts. The next morning, Rosie recalls the sexual assault of the night before and realizes that it actually happened. Feeling intense shame, she goes about her day as typically as she can manage, and she and Truman pretend that nothing ever happened. As the holiday season progresses and Christmas arrives, Rosie believes that Celine is aware of the new tension in the home and fears that she may suspect that something is amiss. Just before Christmas, however, Rosie receives a package and letter in the post; it is from Helen, and the gift is an amaryllis, a beautiful red flower that blooms in the winter. Rosie reads Helen’s kind letter, which states: “Dearest Rosie: It’s been a few years since I’ve written you, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten you… I hope this bit of Christmas cheer will bring you comfort” (132). Rosie admires the flower, and the cook tells her how to care for an amaryllis plant.

At the end of January, Rosie notices that she hasn’t had her period in two months and realizes that she is pregnant. Although she is initially terrified, she quickly embraces the new life inside her and resolves to run away and start her new life sooner than she had planned. Unfortunately, Celine also notices that she is pregnant and grows furious when she intuits that Truman must be the father. As a result, Celine makes plans to swiftly evict Rosie from the house.

The narrative returns to the present moment. Rosie is returned to her usual bed, and she solidifies escape plans with Belle, who tells her that the orderly, Rudy, has arranged everything exactly as Belle has told him to. The next morning at breakfast, Belle flirts with Stuart, Dr. Townsend’s son, who holds a part-time training position at the institution. As Rosie and Belle begin to walk away, Stuart overhears Belle telling Rosie that she is just having fun in mocking him. The day passes quietly, and in the middle of the night, the two girls make their escape; they take the keys that Rudy gave them and recover Rosie’s personal belongings. Then they sneak into the nursery to rescue Amaryllis and rush out the front door, heading for the gate. However, when they are nearly there, Stuart discovers the pair escaping and sounds the alarm. Belle manages to escape, but Rosie, who begins to feel weak, stumbles and faints, still holding Amaryllis in her arms.

The narrative shifts back to Rosie’s earlier time with the Calverts. Truman was recently absent on a business trip, and when he returns home, Celine informs him that Rosie is pregnant. Truman understands Celine’s implicit accusation that he is the father, and the two have a heated discussion, debating what to do about Rosie and the unborn child. Later that day, Truman tells Rosie that she must never admit that he is the father. In return, he promises to give her the key to a lockbox at a bank in San Jose, in which he has quietly saved $4,000. He repeats his insistence that Rosie stay quiet about the whole affair.

The narrative returns to the present moment. Rosie awakens in a hospital bed with her stomach on fire. The nurse tells her that she should not tug at her stomach because she might damage the stitches. Horrified, Rosie examines herself and realizes that she too has undergone a salpingectomy—the procedure by which a woman’s fallopian tubes are removed. Her narrative states, “I look up at the nurse, but I know what they have done. They cut into me. Changed me. Sterilized me. Just like they had done to Charlotte” (161-62). Rosie panics and begins to scream and ask for her baby, but the nurse quickly sedates her. When Rosie awakens later, Dr. Townsend talks with her about the procedure, insisting that it is the best thing for everyone and explaining that not everybody is equipped to have children and raise them.

The weeks go by, and Rosie tries to process everything that has occurred. She prays that at the very least, her daughter will be spared the condition of seeing colors in her mind. Dr. Townsend tells Rosie that when she turns 19 at the end of the next year, she will be released to a rehabilitation home, in which she will learn how to rejoin society.

As the next year slips by, Rosie studies for her educational certificate, which acts as the equivalent to a high school diploma. Her 19th birthday arrives, and Dr. Townsend calls her into his office for a meeting. He gives her a brand-new dress from Mrs. Grissom and states that this is Rosie’s last day at the Sonoma home; she will be leaving soon with Mrs. Grissom and will spend the next two years at a group home. There, she will work a job and complete her rehabilitation process, which will conclude on her 21st birthday, at which point she will then be released from government oversight. As she leaves, she protests against what was done to her, telling the institution matron, “I will have to live with what was done to me here, […] [b]ut so will you, Mrs. Crockett. All of you will” (179). Rosie gets into the car with Mrs. Grissom and is driven to the group home in Petaluma.

Rosie discovers that Mrs. Clark, the head of the group home, is a kind, older woman. Mrs. Clark greets her warmly and shows her around the home, describing the daily routine and introducing the other girls who currently reside there. Rosie is shown to her room on the top floor and then greets all the other girls, one of whom has made her a birthday cake. Rosie resolves to do her best over the next two years to prepare for a new life on her own. She quickly adapts to her new surroundings and her job at the local hotel.

Two years go by, and Rosie spends them industriously, maturing and ingratiating herself to Mrs. Clark, the other girls, and the people with whom she works at the hotel. At the end of this time period, she reflects on her experiences at the home, stating, “I am grateful to have had Mrs. Clark as a stand-in parent […] Mrs. Clark isn’t like Celine or Mrs. Grissom or Mrs. Crockett… Of all these women, she has been the most like my own mother. […] I have felt safe with her. Cared for by her” (194). On her 21st birthday, Rosie packs her bags and takes a bus to San Jose, intent on discovering if Truman’s money is still there in the lockbox as he promised.

When Rosie arrives at the bank, she discovers that the lockbox has been opened and the account closed. The bank teller informs her that Truman has died, and Celine came to close the account herself. Rosie is shocked but decides that this is the best thing to happen after all, stating, “I have forged my way in pain and suffering and without any favors from the Calverts [and] I have my new life in my grasp” (199). She returns to Petaluma, rents a room from a kind couple, and continues to work at the hotel, basking in the freedom that she has been denied over the past four years.

One day, while getting the hotel dining room ready for a conference meeting, she overhears a conversation of a group of scientists attending the conference. One of them begins to talk about a condition called synesthesia, and Rosie is stunned to realize that the scientist is describing her own condition of seeing colors. Later in the evening, she arranges to meet the scientist at a local diner to talk. The knowledge that other people have the same neurological condition that she does is a revelation to her, and she introduces herself as Anne Maras.