At 8 or 9,
Rosemary used to dream about herself and
Fern living on the farm together, a fantasy inspired by
Peter Pan and the
Swiss Family Robinson. She reasons that she would live a happy life as an orphan. With
Lowell gone, Rosemary’s social status has dropped again. On the first day of seventh grade, someone tapes a picture of a chimp to the back of Rosemary’s backpack, and she doesn’t realize it until a teacher removes it. At home that night, Rosemary cries, wishing Lowell would come back. She doesn’t tell
her mother, who is in too fragile a state to handle it, or
her father, who she believes would be no help.