The Address

Bailey is very hungover. To escape her self-loathing, she investigates the trunks in the basement. The trunk bearing the initials T.J.C. is locked, but she opens the one marked S.J.S. The other is labeled M.C.C. Bailey realizes it must be Minnie Camden’s and the other is Theodore’s. In the trunk marked S.J.S., she finds a travel booklet for Sara Jane Smythe and a photo of a woman holding a baby, standing with two little girls and a boy. Renzo enters, and she shows him what she found. He confirms that Sara Smythe lived in the Dakota the year it opened, and he shows Bailey a scrapbook with old newspaper clippings. One reports that Smythe was found guilty of Theodore Camden’s murder. Bailey shows Renzo the photo of Sara, and he claims Bailey bears an “uncanny” resemblance to her.

Bailey calls Jack, hoping to visit for his birthday. He picks her up from the train station, and they go to his house. She notices a drawing of a cottage on the wall; she’s seen it a million times but never paid attention. Now, she sees Theo Camden’s signature in the corner, with a note that reads, “For Sara.” She tells her dad she’s been digging in some old trunks at the Dakota and asks about Christopher. Jack says Theodore died when Christopher was a baby, so Minnie raised him. However, when she died, Christopher inherited nothing, though he was raised as part of the family. He felt rejected. Jack is proud to be different from the Camdens, and Bailey realizes she’s inherited the same resentment that he and Christopher felt “because he’d been brought up to believe he was an equal when really he was not” (171). She takes the picture with her, certain Jack won’t miss it.

Sara’s stomach problems worsen, and she cannot eat; this adds to her confusion and weakness. Mrs. Camden reports the theft of an emerald necklace, and when Mr. Douglas opens a drawer in Sara’s desk, he finds the missing jewels. Sara is shocked and dazed, unable to protest her innocence. She faints.

Sara awakens in the staff room. Mr. Douglas advises her to go with the police and answer their questions. Sara asks Daisy to tell Theo what happened. She is taken to the police court, and Mr. Douglas describes her recent, erratic behavior. A doctor questions her and declares her to be fragile. She asks them to speak with Theo, her “friend,” and Mr. Douglas uses this as evidence of her delusion. The judge sends her to “the island” for evaluation and rehabilitation. Sara is driven to a ferry which delivers her to Blackwell Island’s “Insane Asylum.” There, Sara is forced into a cold bath, scrubbed, dressed, and then put to bed. She recalls that her mother was called “mad” too. That night, a nurse patrols the room four times, banging the bedframes and preventing the patients from sleeping soundly.

Melinda claims she told Bailey to stop drinking at the club, but Bailey can’t remember. She does realize that Melinda’s “power” comes from her perception of others’ weaknesses, and Bailey is especially vulnerable. Bailey shows her the photograph from Sara’s trunk, and Melinda sees the resemblance but denies it. Bailey suggests that Sara was Christopher’s mother while Theodore was his father, as this would explain why the family took him in. She wonders if his murder was a crime of passion not “madness,” but Melinda dismisses her ideas. Bailey realizes that, if she is the great-grandchild of Theodore Camden, “then she was also a threat” to Melinda because she might deserve a share of the trust money (192-93). Melinda yawns, calling Sara a “freak.” She says it’s important for Bailey to stop looking backward and look ahead to her future rather than her past.

Bailey goes to another AA meeting, and she describes her recent relapse. Afterward, she and Renzo grab a bite, and he describes his childhood in the Dakota. Bailey talks about her mother’s death and realizes that, at some point, she must stop running from her past. She tells him about the drawing and its inscription, of how she’d like to be the descendant of Theodore and Sara’s love child. He understands that she wants to “belong to someone” (198).

Sara feels more clearheaded than she has in weeks. She meets another inmate called Natalia, and Natalia advises Sara not to argue with the nurses or they’ll put her somewhere worse. When Sara learns that the superintendent is coming, she hopes for an opportunity to speak with him, but one particularly nasty nurse prevents her. Later, Sara tries to comfort an older woman called Marianne, but Marianne’s crying gets her in trouble. The nasty nurse says Marianne used to be a dancer, so she forces the older woman to dance. Marianne’s unexpected grace enrages the nurse, who forces Marianne to dance until she collapses. When Sara realizes the nurse enjoys watching inmates suffer, she tries to stand up for Marianne. The nurse kicks Sara’s stomach until Sara passes out.

Sara has been in the psychiatric hospital for five days; on day three, she tries to figure out a way to die by suicide. She begins to travel in her mind, almost like meditation. The baby survived the assault and continues to grow. After several weeks, Natalia and Sara learn they are to work in the mat factory, which is a “move up” from their current assignments. Natalia can tell that Sara is pregnant, and she wants to see if they can get Sara a bed at the Charity Hospital. One day, they take a basket of mats to the penitentiary and look in the hospital windows, amazed by how “civilized” it is. Two weeks after giving birth, Natalia says, they will release Sara, and she can leave her child at an orphanage until she finds a job and home. One morning, however, Sara wakes up in horrible pain.