When Women Were Dragons

As winter approaches, Alex needs new clothes for Beatrice. To request help from her father, she calls her old home. Her stepmother answers, however, and in an icy interchange, she tells Alex to come and retrieve the boxes of her mother’s things that are still in the basement. Once there, Alex notices that her, two half-brothers, whom she has never met, aren’t there. Her stepmother is curt, offers her no help, and mentions that her father is away on a business trip. Alex gathers the items from the basement, and as she realizes that this might be her last visit to her childhood home, she is flooded with memories—including the satchel of documents from Marla that she hid in her room long ago. She asks her stepmother if she can go see her old room, loosens the panel from the wall, grabs the satchel, and leaves.

A newspaper clipping from 1963 details a raid of the Student Health Clinic at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The raid was in response to the clinic’s recent distribution of materials and services outside the scope of what the clinic was legally allowed to offer. During the press conference following the raid, the police chief issued a warning to anyone else creating clinics to help the “curious” that the same fate would befall them.

Mr. Green calls Alex again months after her visit to the house to gather her mother’s things. He sounds very ill. The phone call amounts to a lecture in which Mr. Green urges Alex to marry and let go of ideas for a career, along with any other “dangerous ideas” (240). He mentions that Mrs. Gyzinska stopped by the house and said that she’s the reason Alex’s mother recited poetry and filled her head with “nonsense.” This conversation is the only time they talk about Bertha’s death. Mr. Green tells Alex that the world is getting out of control, and that Alex should keep her eyes on the ground.

Dr. Gantz ponders the reality of whether dragons could, or ever do, come back to their families. He hypothesizes what the world might be like if the dragons who transformed in 1955 should return home.

Beatrice wakes Alex up very early on March 23, 1964, shouting that “Today’s the day!” (245). She never tells Alex what she means, and they get ready for school. Once there, the day proceeds at first like any other for Alex. During Calculus class, in which Alex has become the unofficial teaching assistant, what seems like an air raid drill begins. As the students evacuate the classroom, Alex returns to look out the window against Mr. Reynolds’ wishes. She knows that this drill is not a drill as the firefighters arrive and look toward the roof. She sees something huge flying through the air. She refuses Mr. Reynolds’s requests for help, blaming her period, and leaves the school to chase what she saw flying above.

Alex follows the “object” until it arrives at her old house. Alex realizes that it is a dragon—and not just any dragon, but her Aunt Marla. Marla calls Alex by her chosen name—Alex, not Alexandra—and after Alex adjusts to this shock, she tells her aunt that Bertha is gone. The suppressed inner anger erupts, and Alex is livid, screaming at Marla that both she and Beatrice don’t need her. Marla leaves, promising to come back, and Alex stays on the front steps of her old house. Alex’s father arrives shortly and seems aware that Marla has returned because of a picture he saw in the newspaper just a week ago. He knew it was her just as Alex did. He invites Alex in, and when she notices how filthy the house is, she realizes that her stepmother is also gone. She attempts to petition for her father’s help, but he doesn’t take her seriously. He does, however, break down and share that Marla should have let Bertha dragon, and that maybe doing so would have kept her alive. Before Alex leaves, Mr. Green gives her a hand-carved box that was her mother’s. She does not open it. Shortly afterward, Mr. Green dies of a heart attack while at work. Their family home burns down two days later, an incident that is blamed on a fire started by a cigarette.