The Latecomer

In 1993, Johanna tries to connect with Salo by suggesting they meet at the Outsider Art Fair in Chelsea. Salo does not understand the term Outsider Art, and how the untrained artists differ from those he has been collecting already. When Johanna calls the reception desk to cancel, delayed by a meeting with Walden’s principal, Salo decides to look through the exhibits on his own.

When he gets off the phone with Johanna, a woman who has heard his name over the intercom approaches him. He does not recognize her, but she introduces herself as Stella, the other passenger in Salo’s car the night of the accident, and the only other person who survived. Seeing a scar on her collarbone, he apologizes for the accident. When she responds that it was not his fault, he begins to cry.

Stella takes him upstairs to an exhibit she is overseeing so that they can talk in private. She is a documentary filmmaker, originally from Oakland, California, and now lives in Berkeley. Her current project focuses on Achilles Rizzoli, an artist whose unique work has yet to be recognized, even in the outsider art world. When they leave the show together, Salo takes her to his Red Hook warehouse. Afterwards, they talk for hours at her hotel room, and he finds himself hoping their relationship will continue.

His interest in Stella is not about just wanting another woman. He recognizes that Johanna does the work of the family, and he has arranged his life so that he can pursue his art interests alone. Although he is proud of his children, and feels responsible for them, he is removed. The children are in high school now, and he knows that Johanna is dreading their departure, but he feels differently. He considers moving to one of the Red Hook houses after they leave.

Stella returns home to California, but whenever she comes to New York, they have dinner. Salo purchases the Rizzoli collection so that Stella can study it for her film. He is in love with her, and channels that love into presenting her with career opportunities, limiting their personal interactions to a few dinners every year. He introduces her to Johanna over dinner as a college friend, although Johanna does not know that Stella was in the car accident. Ten years after Salo stores the Rizzoli collection in the warehouse, it disappears.

At the age of 13, Sally is struggling with the discovery that she is attracted to women. She had a crush on a camp counselor year ago but brushed it off as an anomaly until she develops feelings for a girl at school—a girl who, coincidentally, Lewyn has a crush on as well. She is so preoccupied with her discovery that, when a classmate tells her she saw Salo with a girlfriend, she is taken by surprise. She is angry that Salo is giving his time and attention to someone else, when he has never given the same to any member of his family.

That night, Sally watches Salo, and begins to ask questions about why he does not join the family for dinner. She asks him to go to a gallery with her, but, although he seems honestly disappointed, he has other plans. When she finds an invitation to an art opening in his mail, she decides to go in order to spy on him.

At the opening, before she sees her father, she is captivated by a woman’s bare back in a dress, and the surge of lust she feels makes her realize that it is ridiculous to deny who she is. At the same time, she feels a sharp pain and realizes that she has just gotten her period. Sally goes into the bathroom, angry about her situation, and when she comes out of the stall, the woman whose back has so captivated her is standing there.

When the woman asks if she is okay, Sally bursts into tears. They go into the sitting room to talk and Sally talks about her father, and why she is at the exhibit. At this point the other woman, not yet revealed to be Stella, understands that Sally is Salo’s daughter. She introduces herself, without revealing the relationship, but Sally is reluctant to give her name.

After Stella leaves the bathroom, Sally composes herself and goes back to the exhibit hall. She sees Stella’s back again, but this time, she sees Salo with her, and can see that Salo is in love with her. She is angry with her father and confused by her own attraction to Stella but in the end, leaves without confronting them.

The triplets are in ninth grade and keeping their distance from each other. Salo has distanced himself even further, while Johanna still tries desperately to create a sense of family. The family that she has devoted her life to has never manifested, and soon her children will be leaving home. Some days, she finds it hard to get out of bed, and has to admit failure—her children are doing well, and do not get into trouble, but it is not enough.

When the triplets are juniors, Johanna attends a Walden parents meeting about college admissions. She realizes that she does not know where her children want to attend college, or what they’d like to do with their lives. When another woman mentions that Cornell, Salo’s alma mater, would accept them, Johanna wonders if the triplets would become closer away from their parents. The guidance counselor mentions a book, Colleges That Change Lives, and Johanna goes to the bookstore to buy a copy.

While at the bookstore, she sees a little boy that looks just like Lewyn. She is drawn to him, but when the mother sees her, she picks up the boy and leaves the bookstore. She realizes that the mother was Stella Western, whom she met once at dinner with Salo, and the boy is Salo’s child. She realizes how hard she has worked to deny this reality, and also resents Stella’s familiarity with the neighborhood.

At home, she is crying at her desk, where she manages the family’s business, and sees a bill from the fertility clinic. She has been paying to keep their last embryo frozen, which they had kept in case they needed to pursue surrogacy. Suddenly, she sees a new possibility. She goes to the fertility doctor, who arranges for a surrogate, and has Salo sign the paperwork. On June 20, 2000, Phoebe is born.