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Back Wintering Save as PDF
Chapters (49)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Notice
  4. Dedication
  5. 1. “Morning Song”
  6. 2. “The Couriers”
  7. 3. “The Rabbit Catcher”
  8. 4. “Thalidomide”
  9. 5. “The Applicant”
  10. 6. “Barren Woman”
  11. 7. “Lady Lazarus”
  12. 8. “Tulips”
  13. 9. “A Secret”
  14. 10. “The Jailor”
  15. 11. “Cut”
  16. 12. “Elm”
  17. 13. “The Night Dances”
  18. 14. “The Detective”
  19. 15. “Ariel”
  20. 16. “Death & Co.”
  21. 17. “Magi”
  22. 18. “Lesbos”
  23. 19. “The Other”
  24. 20. “Stopped Dead”
  25. 21. “Poppies in October”
  26. 22. “The Courage of Shutting-Up”
  27. 23. “Nick and the Candlestick”
  28. 24. “Berck-Plage”
  29. 25. “Gulliver”
  30. 26. “Getting There”
  31. 27. “Medusa”
  32. 28. “Purdah”
  33. 29. “The Moon and the Yew Tree”
  34. 30. “A Birthday Present”
  35. 31. “Letter in November”
  36. 32. “Amnesiac”
  37. 33. “The Rival”
  38. 34. “Daddy”
  39. 35. “You’re”
  40. 36. “Fever 103°”
  41. 37. “The Bee Meeting”
  42. 38. “The Arrival of the Bee Box”
  43. 39. “Stings”
  44. 40. “The Swarm”
  45. 41. “Wintering”
  46. Postscript
  47. Author’s Note
  48. Acknowledgments and Permissions
  49. Also by Kate Moses

“I’m here,” she sings, as she passes the stair. “I’ll be right up.” She marches out the front door, slamming it behind her. A snail or two dislodge, cracking and oozing on the granite step. She kicks them away. The weather has turned; the sun has disappeared, clouds bunching up gray overhead. Yellowed leaves are rolling and crashing in waves across the lawn. She can smell the green scent of the boxwood, medicinal, where she stands. Sylvia swings her arms out straight, one to each side of the step, and turns the bottles over, pouring the ale in a double waterfall onto the two pans at either side of the door. The Guinness chugs, frothing as it falls.

Tomorrow, she’s going to see him. She tries the idea on, standing cruciform at her front door, preparing to kill the snails. She replays the words in her head, shifting them, the many ways they could mean. Which one is true? She’s going to see him. She’s going to see him. She’s going to see him. She’s going to see him.

She’s going to see him, she thinks, simply that. There’s no hidden message, no secret to her trip. She’s done with him. She wants a new home that’s her own; she wants a new start in the company of her peers. She wants to be known as Sylvia Plath the writer, not Sylvia Plath the wife of Ted Hughes. So what if he’s there? What if he has other ideas? He’ll soon meet with her frosty disdain. It’s her own life she’s interested in. She’s got a new self, sleeked and costly and folded in tissue; she’s got a self written in blood. She’s ready.

The Guinness is finished, the pans foaming. She begins to pluck snails off the door, dropping them from her Olympian height into the pans of cold beer to drown. She pauses, holding a snail aloft, pinched between her right forefinger and thumb. She could crush its drab shell without trying; she can see the body writhing beneath the whorls. Its house feels no sturdier than vellum. Love, she thinks, it is finally my season. Lightly, she tosses the snail to the side, onto the lawn beyond the bushes. She has no need for poison. Let them live.

3. “The Rabbit Catcher”

CHAPTER THREE

“The Rabbit Catcher”

DECEMBER 12, 1962

9:30 A.M.

LONDON

She thinks she is ready.