The Lost Girls of Willowbrook

As she waits for the bus, Sage wonders how her mother could have faked Rosemary’s death and whether guilt drove her to drink herself to death. She misses her father and wonders if he would have stopped her mother from putting Rosemary in Willowbrook. The bus arrives, covered in graffiti, which reminds her of the tunnels under the old tuberculosis hospital and the stories of Cropsey.

As the bus travels along its route, she looks enviously at people going about their lives. At the last stop, the driver checks to make sure she’s going to Willowbrook; only Sage and another couple remain on the bus. When they arrive on the Willowbrook campus, she tries to send her thoughts to her father, hoping he’ll somehow come to her rescue. Initially, she is reassured by the brightly colored playgrounds and peaceful natural scenery. She allows herself to hope that everything is fine, that Rosemary has been found safely, and is living a good life at Willowbrook. When they stop, Sage realizes her purse is gone. The driver helps her look for the purse, then takes her name and number in case it’s found.

When Sage goes into Willowbrook, the signs make it seem less like a school and more like a mental hospital. She asks the receptionist about Rosemary and is asked to wait for the doctor. The couple from the bus visits their son and speaks critically to an attendant, accusing him of hiding the poor treatment of the patients. As time passes, Sage grows concerned that they’ll tell her Rosemary has died. But then, a doctor in a tweed suit appears; he believes that Sage is actually her twin sister Rosemary.

Sage tries to convince the orderly and doctor that she’s not Rosemary, but the doctor doesn’t believe her. She is forced her onto a gurney, strapped down, and given a sedative. She keeps insisting that she’s Rosemary’s twin, but the doctor responds that Sage doesn’t exist and is only part of her psychosis. Sage slowly loses consciousness.

Sage has a drug-induced nightmare of the night Rosemary went to the hospital and never came home. Rosemary hunched in a corner of their shared room making odd noises. When Sage asked what she’s doing, Rosemary screamed uncontrollably. Sage’s mother and Alan rushed in to calm her, but Rosemary screamed that she couldn’t breathe, that she was being choked. Rosemary was rushed to the hospital. The next day, Sage’s mother called Sage at home to say that Rosemary had a high fever. A day later, Sage was told that Rosemary died.

Sage wakes in a hospital room, still tied to the gurney. It takes her a minute to understand that she’s in Willowbrook and that the staff believe she’s Rosemary. She yells for help several times before an attendant unlocks the door and tries to reassure her. Sage asks to be released, but the attendant leaves to get the doctor. No one can rescue her: Sage’s boyfriend and friends won’t think much of her being hard to reach, while Alan likely doesn’t want her back.

Dr. Baldwin comes back with the attendant. He claims that Sage is Rosemary’s delusion, and that Rosemary doesn’t have a sister. He reminds her of the times she called home to speak to her mother. At this, Sage remembers her mother talking on the phone, supposedly to an aunt, but not allowing Sage to listen. Sage tries to convince the doctor that she came on a bus and that she’s Rosemary’s identical twin. Baldwin allows her to be released from the restraints, but refuses to believe what she’s telling him. Finally, Sage lashes out and grabs the doctor’s suit jacket. She’s restrained and sedated a second time.

When Sage wakes again she is being dragged through a tunnel, her bare feet scraping against the stone floor. The male attendants drag her up a flight of stairs and into House Six, where the wards are overseen by Nurse Vic. The attendants and nurse ignore Sage as she begs them to believe that she isn’t Rosemary. She’s led into Ward D and is shocked by the horrors she sees there. Multiple infants with Down syndrome and limb differences are wheeled by in a single crib. In the hallway are girls in beds and wheelchairs; they look either drugged or like they’ve simply given up on life. The smell is awful—a rancid mix of excrement and cleaning supplies. It looks like the pictures Sage has seen of concentration camps—many of the girls are naked or only wearing a cloth diaper. There are puddles of urine and stains of feces and blood on all surfaces, walls, and floors.

In the ward dorm room, a naked young woman of about 18 is running around screaming, as a male and female attendants chase her. This is Norma, Rosemary’s best friend. Norma slams a wooden chair on the floor, breaking it and cutting her arm badly. She throws the pieces at the attendants, Wayne and Marla, who dodge. They wrestle Norma onto a bed and put her in restraints.

Rosemary’s bed and blanket are filthy. Sage is very cold. She asks for her coat or a sweater and shoes, but the attendant laughs at her. He jokes that Wayne must know where Rosemary goes when she escapes. Sage gets quiet to avoid drawing attention to herself.

The lights are turned off. Sage lies on the bed, brushing away bugs. She falls asleep and has nightmares of Cropsey and Rosemary.

Sage wakes to a shriek from one of the other girls. She feels nauseous and anxious that no one has come to rescue her. The attendant named Marla announces that it’s shower day. Girls who can walk and dress themselves strip, go to the disgusting communal toilet room, and allow themselves to be sprayed down with cold water. Those who can’t or refuse to walk are forcibly stripped, placed in carts, and sprayed down. Sage tries to resist, but Marla wrestles her to the bed and chokes her until she agrees to comply. She feels ashamed to be naked, trying to cover herself as she uses a clogged toilet and is hosed off.

She dresses and meets Tina, who’s been at Willowbrook for eight years after her father poured boiling water on her. Tina, whose mother hasn’t come to visit in two years, was also Rosemary’s friend; she believes that Sage is Rosemary. When Sage plays along to investigate, Tina tells her that Rosemary wanted to escape, and that the staff believe Wayne helped her because he was attracted to her.

The girls and women are herded out of the ward. Sage pushes a girl clad only in a diaper in a cart. Sage asks to see a doctor, but unless she needs stitches or is dying, Marla won’t let her. The hall fills as girls and women from the other wards crowd toward double doors. Sage hopes they’re going a classroom or a cafeteria where someone might listen to her, but when she sees their destination, she understands otherwise.