When Women Were Dragons

After the incident with Sonja, Alex is grounded for two weeks. During this time, she completes pointless chores, including learning to tie macrame knots. She spends time telling stories with Beatrice, and once her punishment is lifted and she is permitted to walk to and from school alone, she goes to Sonja’s house only to find that Sonja’s entire family is gone. On the “For Lease” sign, she sees that the bank for whom her father works has listed their logo. Alex spends the evening in her room, says nothing to her parents, and moves on despite this discovery.

This document records the testimony from Dr. H. N. Gantz to the House Committee on Un-American Activities, during a meeting in which the Committee is investigating the issue of passports being used in illicit ways. In Dr. Gantz’s case, he wished to attend a conference in Prague, for which his request for a passport was denied under the guise of protecting the country against communism. Dr. Gantz protests the maltreatment of Americans across the country, due to both racism and the national fear of communism. When applying for his passport Gantz was supposed to sign affidavits renouncing both the Communist Party and the Wyvern Research Collective: documents which he didn’t include in his application. Dr. Gantz continues to argue with the prosecutor, and the trial ends with Gantz being held in contempt of court.

Beatrice and Alex grow, as does Bertha’s garden, but Bertha continues to shrink. While watching Beatrice one day over the summer, Alex loses Beatrice before finding her napping in the same garden where Alex once saw a dragon. They spend time together in the garden, and Alex shares stories from when she was a girl. When Alex tells Beatrice that the old woman who used to live in the house disappeared, Beatrice answers that maybe the dragon knows where she went. After Beatrice’s insistence that a dragon does live in the house, Alex tells her to keep these thoughts to herself, but as they leave, Alex sees a pair of eyes peering through the siding of the dilapidated house and at first assumes it to be a cat. Then Alex registers the ground rumble a bit and notices that the eyes look much larger than a cat’s.

Bertha’s cancer returns, but she doesn’t tell her family. They find out when she falls onto the kitchen floor, blood flowing from her mouth and nose. Mr. Green takes Bertha to the hospital, where she stays until she dies. Alex visits her every day, reading Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem, “Tithonus.” Her mother confesses to Alex before she dies that she “could have done it too” (139). Alex doesn’t know what she means, and she doesn’t even know how to tell others in the hospital of her mother’s death, so she simply takes Beatrice from the hospital room and returns home.

Following Bertha’s death, Alex’s father introduces Beatrice and Alex to Miss Olson, his secretary, who is sitting on the couch in their home and is very clearly pregnant. Mr. Green takes the girls to visit their mother’s grave, where Alex learns for the first time that her mother’s name is Bertha Green. After the cemetery, Mr. Green takes the girls to an apartment stacked with boxes, two beds, and Alex’s desk. Mr. Green tells Alex that Beatrice is now her responsibility and that the two girls must live in the apartment for the foreseeable future. He promises to give them money and says he’ll check on them every day, but as it turns out, he never does. Instead, he tells Alex that caring for Beatrice can’t be that hard since it is in her “feminine nature” to care for a child and a home.

“A Brief History of Dragons,” another historical account, details occurrences at a corn mill that was converted into a cotton mill in England. Mr. John Wyatt, famous for the fine fabric he produced, hired beautiful young women to work the mill. These women were hidden from the public; no one ever saw them despite Wyatt’s bragging. One day, fires began erupting in the mill until the whole building was reduced to rubble. None of the women were ever found. Wyatt, condemned to prison and ruined by the damage from the fires, wrote poems about a man who attempts to harness the power of women and refine it for industrious purposes, forcing nature to yield to industry. Mr. Wyatt died in prison.

The next two years for Alex and Beatrice are hard. Alex continues her education while raising Beatrice, and although she receives groceries and money from Mr. Green, she is left alone to do everything else by herself. Alex also prepares for college with the help of Mrs. Gyzinska. One day, Beatrice and her family are summoned by Mr. Alphonse to the school. Beatrice reports that she has no idea what she did to get into trouble. Alex, lying for her father by claiming that he is away on business, goes to the school to meet with the principal on Beatrice’s behalf. As Beatrice and Alex wait to meet the principal, a nun goes missing, and Mr. Alphonse seems to be dealing with some kind of problem.

Once available to meet with the Greens, Mr. Alphonse is upset to learn that Alex’s father is absent. He agrees to meet with Alex anyway and shares that Beatrice has been drawing inappropriate images. Suddenly, crashing noises come from somewhere in the school, and Mr. Alphonse must step away from the meeting to deal with the crisis. While he is gone, Alex thumbs through the images and sees that Beatrice has been drawing dragons—numerous dragons doing a variety of things. She has even written, “I am a Dragon” in various letterings. Alex’s response is fierce, for she is afraid that Beatrice might leave her and scares both Beatrice and herself with her vehemence. In the same manner that Bertha once shamed Alex, Alex now shames Beatrice. They leave without concluding the meeting with Mr. Alphonse, and Alex informs the nun that she will handle the issue at home.