The Price of Salt

In Wyoming, Therese and Carol stay at a tourist camp built like a circle of “tepees.” Therese spots the detective and his car—a black, two-door sedan. The pair leaves, and Carol gets caught speeding, requiring them to follow the police officer 30 miles to Central City, Nebraska, where they pay the ticket.

On their own again, they notice the detective. Carol pulls up next to him and asks if he likes their company. The detective claims he’s only performing his job—he’s not on anyone’s side. If Carol went back to New York, he could leave. He advises her to return home, noting that her child is at stake.

Everyone returns to their cars, and Therese gives Carol her gun. She pulls over, but she leaves the gun in the side pocket. The detective speaks to her again, and Carol offers to buy the tapes from him. The detective says it’s a waste of money because he already sent them to New York. Carol thinks he still has the Colorado Springs tapes. He does, and he sells them to her for $500.

Therese thinks the detective has the blank eyes of a doll. When he smiles, she spots “malice,” so she doesn’t believe he is impartial. Therese considers the entire world an enemy, and she feels like a monster has caught her and Carol in a fist.

The detective agrees to leave them alone, and they burn the tapes. In Omaha, Nebraska, Therese reiterates her love for Carol, who calls Abby and tells her to get the check Therese left in her house. Therese then tells Carol about the letter she tucked into the Oxford Book of English Verse. Carol frowns but tells Therese not to worry. She must fly back to New York, but after a week, she can return to Therese, and they can go wherever they want. They kiss in the shower together and almost fall.

Carol takes an airplane to New York from Des Moines, Iowa. Before the flight attendants shut the door, Carol appears and blows Therese a kiss, which means an “absurd” amount to Therese. She waits for Carol in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She passes the drugstore where Carol bought toothpaste and tissues, and she walks to the corner where Carol read street names. She gets a letter from Phil, who might be able to get her a job in Chicago. She also gets a letter from Dannie, who wants to meet her on his way to California.

Therese calls Carol, but when she tells Carol she loves her, Carol whistles. Abby found the check but not the letter, and Therese wonders if she left it in her apartment instead. Therese’s next call with Carol is brisk, and Carol seems worried about Harge’s machinations. In a letter to Therese, Carol says Florence found the letter, and Harge bought it from her. Florence also probably told Harge where they were. Carol still isn’t sure what Harge is up to, but she wants Therese to call her. As Therese is about to do so, she receives a telegram from Carol asking her not to call.

Therese spends her evenings at the public library. She looks at books with pictures of Europe, imagining what it’d be like to go there with Carol. At an antique shop, she buys Carol an ornate candlestick holder. Carol sends Therese a check for $250. She wants Therese to fly back to New York and pay someone to drive the car back. Therese calls Carol, but Carol thinks the phone is tapped. She tells Therese to come home so they can talk. Therese blames herself because her love letter has incriminated Carol.

Carol writes Therese a letter saying she is “happy” with Therese, she only wants to be with her, and she would declare her love for Therese in court. A “rapport” between two women or two men can be as “perfect” as between a man and a woman. She didn’t sink to “vice”—Harge and his scheme produced it. She shares that she “surrendered” to Harge and gave him full custody of Rindy. To see her daughter, Carol has agreed to stop seeing Therese. Therese realizes Carol loves Rindy more than her.

Therese gets a letter from Ruby Robichek thanking her for the sausage and inviting her to visit when she returns. She also gets a vitriolic letter from Richard that calls her “pathological” and “sordid,” and he says he will tell people the truth about her. Therese doesn’t care if he does.

At the library, Therese notices the picture over the door that looks like Carol. The woman in the picture smiles and gives Therese a mocking look. Frightened, she runs out of the library.

In Chicago, Therese works as a receptionist/filing clerk, but she’s fired because she doesn’t know shorthand. She gets another office job at a lumberyard, and she likes her boss, the truck drivers, and the lumberjacks. One lumberjack, Steve, asks her on a date, but she declines.

Abby phones: Carol is sick in Vermont. Abby doesn’t think Therese should call Carol, but Carol wants to know about the car and if Therese needs money. The car is fine, and Therese declines the money. After the call, Therese tells the hotel that she doesn’t want to receive any more long-distance calls. Abby sends Therese a check for $250, and Therese writes Abby a thank you note but says she won’t use the check. Therese also writes a “cheerful” card to Ruby.

Dannie arrives and tries to get Therese to go West with him, but Therese must return to New York. Dannie says Richard’s ego is hurt, but Dannie isn’t like Richard; he thinks people can do what they want with their lives. He asks about Carol, and Therese says she’d do it all over again—even the “fiasco” ending. Therese recalls Dannie's notion of using and letting go and decides she wants to try it.

In New York City, Therese meets a producer, Ned Bernstein, who thinks she should design for TV sets. He invites her to a cocktail party for an English actor, Genevieve Cranell, at the St. Regis Hotel. Therese calls Carol, who proposes meeting this afternoon, but Therese has to see people, so they’ll meet tomorrow at the Ritz Tower.

When they meet, Carol doesn’t recognize Therese—she looks grown up. Therese tells Carol about the picture in the Sioux Falls library, and she gives her the candlestick holder she bought in the antique shop. Therese wonders about their first meeting at Frankenberg’s, and Carol says she sought out Therese because she wasn’t “busy as hell” (247). Carol declares her love for Therese, but Therese doesn’t know if she still loves Carol.

Regarding Harge, Carol says she didn’t completely surrender: She objected to “silly promises,” so Rindy can only visit her a few times a year. Harge and Carol are selling the house, and Carol has an apartment big enough for two. She also has a job as a buyer for a furniture shop. Therese thinks Carol has “courage,” but she doesn’t think they should live together, though her voice is indecisive.

Carol leaves to meet someone at the Elysee, and Therese goes to the cocktail party, where she meets Genevieve, who’s “like Carol.” She invites Therese to Room 619 for an “inner circle party” (254), but Therese realizes Genevieve won’t ever mean much to her. She leaves the party and goes to the Elysee, where she sees Carol with a man. Eagerly, Carol waves Therese over.