Bea’s Two Months in Her Hometown

Bea’s Two Months in Her Hometown culminate in a departure that feels less like a return to normal life than a new uncertainty. Bea considers the visit successful because she has forgotten Víctor, but her mother, Ángela, fears that Bea is leaving with a sense of failure and that the two months have not been good for her. The difference between their assessments gives the period its defining tension: Bea can name an objective achieved, while her mother sees the emotional cost around it.

How Bea Measures the Visit

As Bea prepares to leave, Ángela says she is angry that her daughter is going away feeling she has not succeeded. Bea counters that forgetting Víctor was the point, and says she has accomplished it, even if doing so has hurt everyone. The exchange records both relief and self-reproach without settling whether the visit has been restorative. Ángela remains dissatisfied with that conclusion; her concern is not about diagnosing Bea, but about watching her leave in this state.

The Departure and Its Reversal

Ángela affirms that Bea is strong with a warm smile Bea recognizes as especially comforting. Yet once aboard the train to Madrid, Bea feels a knot in her stomach. The sensation is new: she had previously loved her family while also feeling relieved and liberated when leaving them. This time, the familiar journey no longer offers the same uncomplicated escape, marking a change in how Bea experiences both home and departure.

Madrid and What Remains

In Madrid, the unease continues. Bea no longer recognizes the city, or herself within it, as she once did: what had seemed full of life, activity, and possibility now appears stressful, dirty, and polluted. Her search for housing yields only poor flats at excessive prices, and architecture studios do not value her experience, including her work on two unsuccessful treehouses. Recognition from strangers as the woman who confronted the attractive presenter at a demonstration brings praise, but not the kind of recognition Bea wants; her fifteen minutes of fame have become an irritation.

The contrast between her declared success in forgetting Víctor and her persistent thoughts about Diego complicates the departure further. Bea thinks of Diego at night, on waking, at meals, and when she goes out. Their relationship has ended, but the end has not removed him from her mind. The two months therefore conclude with neither a clean homecoming nor a settled return to Madrid: Bea leaves family behind, finds the city estranged, and carries an unresolved attachment with her.