Beyond That, the Sea

Bea, now a 22-year-old nursery school teacher, also gets a call from Nancy with the news of Ethan’s death. Nancy tells Bea that neither of the boys are home but will return soon. After hanging up, Bea thinks about the Gregorys and feels sad that Nancy must make all the calls alone.

Bea looks through her mail, among which is a postcard from Millie, who is in Spain. However, Bea doesn’t read the whole thing; instead, she falls asleep holding a photo of Ethan.

William looks up all the numbers listed for “B. Thompson” in the London phone book and dials them one by one until Bea picks up. He recognizes her voice and doesn’t say anything, and Bea hangs up, irritated at the anonymous, silent caller. William memorizes her address from the phone book and heads there with a bouquet of flowers.

Bea brings out all the photos she has of the Gregorys and lays them on the floor of her house in one long line. She hasn’t shown most of these to Millie, as her mother seems to want her to forget about the Gregorys and her time in the US altogether. As she’s arranging the photos, her buzzer rings. When she doesn’t immediately open the door, she hears a series of coded knocks. Bea flings the door open, saying, “Oh, William, […] It’s you” (167).

Bea opens the door almost as if she were expecting William. She ushers him in, revealing that Nancy has already called, and William is relieved not to have to break the news. As Bea makes William coffee, he looks around the house and notices the pictures, and Bea explains that she was reminiscing, that Millie is away on holiday with friends, and that Millie’s marriage to Tommy didn’t last.

Bea wonders why Nancy didn’t tell her that William was in London, and he explains that he was in Paris and is heading straight home after his visit with Bea. She understands that William didn’t plan to see her, and William reflects on how after Ethan’s death, she was the only person he wanted to see.

William tells Bea about his job and his pregnant fiancée, Rose. Bea reacts with a mixture of surprise and disappointment. She, in turn, tells him about her complicated relationship with Millie, who expected Bea to still be a child when the latter returned from the US. Having Tommy around didn’t help things either.

As William looks through the pictures, he sees one of Ethan pointing at a postal chessboard. Bea reveals that she and Ethan had been playing for years; he taught her the summer the boys went to camp. They had just been in the middle of a game, and Bea, crying, reveals that she just got a card back the other day; now she has no one to send her next move to.

Bea gets changed, contemplating how long she has dreamed of finding William at her doorstep. However, William in reality differs from the one in her dreams, as if his fire has died out and he has settled for a life far below his potential.

William and Bea go out to dinner and talk about the war and what Bea’s life was like after she returned. They discuss how the Gregorys had to finally sell their island and home in Maine. William recently took Rose there, but Rose hated the place. He has been trying to save up and buy the island back, but Rose wants a place on the Cape.

Bea asks William what his favorite memory is from Maine, but he can’t name just one and lists quite a few, including their final summer together in the woods. Bea remembers the last night they spent together, skinny-dipping in the cold water before heading back to the house and stopping to kiss along the way.

William and Bea sleep together, and it feels right. In the morning, she takes him around the city to show him places from her childhood. William is surprised when people call her “Trixie.” Bea notes that only the Gregorys called her “Bea,” which she liked, but Millie never did. Here in London, she’s “Trixie.” To William, however, she’s still “Bea.”

William’s mood blackens when Bea hides him from the people they meet along the way so that she doesn’t have to explain who he is, and he confronts her about it. Bea asserts that she doesn’t want to tell people that they slept together; in response, William expresses his hope that they’ll do so again and kisses her.

Bea watches William the morning after they sleep together. She has wanted to sleep with William for a long time, and it feels right, despite Rose and the baby. Bea decides to take him around London that day, showing him the places that were important to her while growing up. She talks to him about her feeling of belonging in two different worlds; although her mother is here and this is her home, her favorite place, food, and many other favorites are associated with the US.

William watches how Bea moves through the world here; she feels like a different person. She describes her work and is insulted when he suggests that she should have gone to college, pointing out that he hasn’t made anything of his Harvard education. He apologizes, and they discuss Gerald, who is majoring in psychology at Harvard and spends his time tutoring children. To Wiliam, Bea’s approval of Gerald’s life indicates her disappointment in William’s.

Bea reflects on how odd and exhausting it is to spend so much time with William. She’s grieving Ethan but also William, the boy she once knew. They head back to the flat, and, to Bea’s surprise, Millie is there. Upon learning that the man with Bea is William, her demeanor changes, and Bea knows that her mother has put things together from the unmade bed and condom wrappers on the floor.

William attempts to make conversation to overcome Millie’s frosty demeanor. Bea thinks about how she never wanted William and Millie to meet, especially because Millie became extremely upset when Bea once referred to the Gregorys as her family. Watching them interact now, Bea is further convinced that William and Millie don’t belong in the same space.

Dinner is tense, and William knows he can’t stay tonight. He leaves, promising to convey Millie’s condolences to Nancy. Bea walks him down, and they decide to meet at the train station in the morning before William leaves. They confess their love for each other and kiss before parting, but already it feels like things have changed, and the kiss is merely one between friends.

In the hotel room at night, William lies awake thinking about how he always knew that he and Bea weren’t meant to be together. He loves her deeply but can see that she has moved on. He decides not to tell Rose anything beyond the fact that he met Bea and spent some time with her in London.

Millie doesn’t mention William again to Bea; she merely points out that had Bea read her postcard, she would have known that Millie needed to cut her trip short. Bea meets William at the train station in the morning. Although William states he doesn’t want to leave yet, both of them know that they don’t belong together; they can’t imagine a future together. He pulls her close one last time.

William gives Bea one last hug before boarding the train. Later that night, aboard the ship, he resolves to keep his time in London a secret.

Bea watches the train go, reflecting on how everything was different just three days ago. Now Ethan is dead, William is gone, and Bea needs to move on. She thinks back to when William knocked at her door with the code Gerald made up: “For the slightest of moments, she’d been disappointed. She’d opened the door hoping to see Gerald” (206).