Massonville 1973
Rosalind waited two more days before she split. She took off late at night, and no one knew how she got to the train station. Her grandmother, when contacted, refused to say if she'd arrived home in Alabama. Rosalind didn't leave any kind of message behind for Hank, who flipped, of course. Unfortunately, Ma tried to make him feel better.
“She was right to go, Henry,” she said. “She didn't belong here, and it was wise of her not to drag things out.”
If there had been any hope of Hank accepting his loss, that speech ended it. He moved out of the family apartment and slept on the couch in the rec room at the Killians’ place. Bill's mother called to tell Ma so she wouldn't worry, but for the first time in recorded history Olivia Venable was sick in bed. The flu was the official name of her ailment.
“Why is Henry doing this?” Ma asked over and over.
“He's in love with Rosalind,” Des tried to explain.
“How can he be? She's insensitive and grasping and she doesn't have any talent.”
Des thought about trying to answer, but she didn't know where to start.
“He needs to put all of this behind him,” Ma said. “If Henry would just go back to work—”
“Ma, could we forget the damn theater for a minute? Bill says Hank got drunk last night and parked in their driveway to sleep it off. Your son is sleeping in his car!”
“That's why he should be here working. He needs to be useful.”
Normally Des would have quit trying to fight and would have walked away. But now she knew the truth about their glorious legacy.
“Maybe he doesn't want to be useful,” she said. “Maybe he doesn't want to give up everything for the goddamn opera house.”
Ma started to cry. She'd never done that before.
I can never tell her about that letter.
When Des tracked Hank down, he looked whipped—and hungover.
“Don't you think Rosalind could have been happy here?” he asked wistfully.
Have you lost all your marbles?
“She's awfully ambitious,” Des said.
“You don't think she loved me, do you? You think she just wanted that role. Everyone does.”
“What do you care what people think?”
“If that was it, why did she stick around after Ma took the part away from her? She tried to get me to go to New York with her. Why did she do that?”
“Maybe she was afraid to go alone.”
Or maybe she was trying to get back at Ma by taking you away.
As if he'd read her mind, Hank said, “She's not a bad person, Des.”
There was a part of Des that felt like smacking him upside the head and telling him to grow up. Then she remembered him crying in his room. And she thought about all the sacrifices he'd made so cheerfully over the years.
He can't see Rosalind for what she is, because falling in love with her is the only thing he's ever done for himself.
“Why don't you get out of here, Hank?” Des demanded. “What the hell are you staying for?”
Because if it's the glorious legacy, sugar, have I got a story for you!
Hank read her mind again. “Don't laugh. It's the legacy. I'm not like you,
Des. Ma and me, we need the opera house, and the history. It's bigger than we are. And we need something bigger than we are to make it all worthwhile. ”
She wanted to scream because it was such a waste.
“I'm going to Alabama,” Hank said a few days later.
“Why?”
“I need to know if she loves me. I'm going to try to make her come back.”
Oh, Hank.
“When are you leaving?”
“I want to give Rosalind some time to cool off. And I've got to get myself off of Mrs. Killian's sofa. She's about to throw me out, and Bill along with me,” he added, trying to smile. He was so sweet, her big brother.
Three more weeks until I get out of here. Then I can stop watching him throw his life away.
But before that could happen, everything blew up.