Do Not Disturb

Rosalie and Nick have been married for three years. The restaurant and the motel are doing well. However, she recently tried to get pregnant, but after only a few weeks she had a miscarriage. Then, she woke up one morning with numbness in her foot.

They are in the office of a neurologist, Dr. Heller. She tells them that Rosie has multiple sclerosis. It could have been brought on by Rosalie’s failed pregnancy, so she recommends that they don’t try again. Rosalie thinks back to the fortune teller. She is convinced that the “revelation” that Naomi talked about was her disease. She is now afraid of death.

Later, Nick and Rosalie talk about her diagnosis in their kitchen. Nick suggests that they can still have a child, but Rosalie immediately dismisses it. She is shocked that Nick would still want one. However, when she says no, he backs down. Rosalie also tells Nick that if he wants a family and the diagnosis is too much for him, he can leave. He is adamant that he wants to be with her regardless.

Two years later, Rosalie lies in bed. Her multiple sclerosis has progressed to the point where she can barely move with a walker. At the restaurant, she constantly mixes up orders and struggles to keep up. It scares her that the thing she always wanted—to own a restaurant—now has no interest to her because she is so exhausted.

She tells Nick that she does not want to go to work. He tries to explain that he has gotten a quote to have the kitchen modified for her and that they can make it work, but she insists that she doesn’t want to. Disappointed, Nick tells her that he will find someone else to cook.

Rosalie sits in her wheelchair watching television, which she does all day, every day. The restaurant shut down earlier that year. After Rosalie stopped working in it, business quickly dropped off.

Nick comes into the room, and she wonders why he is home at a strange time. After hesitating, he tells her that he talked to Dr. Heller. She wants Rosalie to do some physical therapy which would help her do more each day. Devastated, Rosalie realizes that Nick is becoming exhausted by doing everything for her. However, she does not blame him, realizing how difficult it must be for him. Nick also gives her antidepressants, insisting that they might help her. Rosalie promises to take them but instead flushes them down the toilet.

Later, Greta—who has moved into the motel—comes into Rosalie’s room. Rosalie considers Greta her only friend. After they talk about the carnival for a while, Greta asks to read Rosalie’s future. Rosalie is hesitant, telling her what happened with Naomi, but Greta insists that Naomi didn’t truly have “the gift.”

Greta tells Rosalie that she has a bright future with Nick. She sees happiness for them coming soon. However, she also tells Rosalie that she needs to “Protect [her] marriage at all costs” (213). She makes Rosalie promise not to let Nick leave. Rosalie does so, but wonders how she would ever stop Nick from leaving her if he wanted to go.

One morning, Nick is whistling in the shower. He then comes out of the bathroom wearing aftershave. Rosalie realizes that something must have happened that changed his mood.

She watches him out the window as he goes back to the hotel. In the parking lot, he talks to a pretty, young blond woman. Rosalie opens the window to try to hear the conversation, but all she catches is the name “Christina.”

Greta comes to Rosalie’s room with lunch. Rosalie tries to talk with her but all she can think about is Nick and Christina. Finally, she asks Greta for a pair of binoculars. Greta realizes what Rosalie is thinking and tells her that binoculars would be a “mistake.” However, she relents and brings them to Rosalie.

That night, Rosalie watches Christina through her window with the binoculars. She sees Nick come into the room and they start kissing. Rosalie has a mixture of jealousy and rage, realizing that she has not been intimate with Nick in over a year, lacking the motivation and ability. She partially does not blame Nick.

When Nick returns, Rosalie tells him what she saw. He insists that they only kissed and blames the fact that Rosalie has been physically and emotionally distant. Rosalie tries to consider his situation but is overwhelmed with anger thinking about Christina. She tells Nick that their marriage is done and demands that he leave.

Rosalie tries to get into bed on her own. She regrets not doing the physical therapy, realizing just how much she relies on Nick. She plans to take all her medication to die by suicide. After struggling with her bed, she ends up falling on the floor.

Nick comes back into the room. He helps Rosalie into her bed, then the two have sex.

In the middle of the night, Rosalie wakes up to find that Nick is gone. She watches out the window, trying to see into Christina’s room, but it is too dark. She spots someone outside, and realizes that Nick is carrying a black trash bag to the dumpster.

When Nick comes back, he washes his hands for several minutes. When he gets into bed, Rosalie asks where he was, but he tells her he just had to check on something.

The next morning, Nick kisses Rosalie passionately. She realizes that she is still very attracted to him, despite her lack of desire. He asks her to go out for dinner, but she compromises by telling him to have Greta cook them something.

Rosalie watches Christina’s room all day, but it stays dark and she never sees her inside. She also sees that Chrstina’s car is still there.

When Nick comes home that night, Rosalie asks if he saw Christina. He is adamant that he tried to talk to her, to ask her to leave, but whenever he knocked on her door, she didn’t answer. Nick promises her that he isn’t going to speak with her or see her, except when he asks her to leave the hotel. Rosalie tells him that she believes him, while wondering what happened to her.

A few days later, the police arrive at the motel along with an ambulance. Rosalie watches as they talk to Nick, then go into Christina’s room and come out with a stretcher.



An officer comes over to talk to Rosalie. He seems shocked that Rosalie is Nick’s wife, and Rosalie realizes that she doesn’t blame him; she has become small and frail, looking much older than Nick.

The officer asks if Rosalie saw anything suspicious the last few days. She tells him no. He then asks if she thinks Nick was having an affair with Christina. Rosalie again says no, feeling guilty for lying but insisting that nothing was going on between them.

After, Nick comes into Rosalie’s room. She tells him that she saw him at the dumpster. He insists that he was just taking out the trash because he had forgot to do it. He asks if she thinks he killed Christina, and Rosalie tells him no; however, she thinks back to the fortune teller, realizing that her husband “is a murderer. And it’s all because of [her]” (244).

Rosalie sees Quinn arrive at the motel. She notes how she is young and pretty, with blond hair like Christina. It has been two years since Christina died, and Rosalie’s relationship with Nick has worsened. They barely speak to each other. She thinks of how her condition has also gotten worse, to the point where she couldn’t take all her pills to die by suicide even if she wanted to.

Rosalie watches through her binoculars, which Nick still doesn’t know about because she keeps them hidden. Nick takes Quinn up to her room, then comes back with food. Once Nick is gone, Quinn anxiously paces, and Rosalie wonders if she is in trouble.

Nick comes into Rosalie’s room and asks to borrow her boots. Angry, Rosalie asks him about the new woman at the hotel. However, Nick insists that he is just trying to help her. He then tells Rosalie that she could make her situation better by letting him move her downstairs or convert the restaurant’s kitchen so she could work again, but Rosalie angrily dismisses him.

Knowing that she has become obsessed, Rosalie can’t stop herself from watching Nick out the window. He helps Quinn dig out her car. Rosalie calls him, bitterly telling Nick to let Quinn keep the boots because she looks so “beautiful.” Instead of starting an argument, Nick sounds exhausted and hangs up.

Rosalie watches for the rest of the day. She dozes off, then wakes up and finds that Nick is in Quinn’s room. She thinks nothing is happening, until they start to kiss.

Rosalie sees Nick push Quinn away, then leave the hotel. She desperately tries to hide her binoculars but accidentally throws them on the ground. Before she can retrieve them, Nick comes into the room.

Nick tries to apologize for what happened, insisting that he did not kiss Quinn back. However, he stops short when he sees the binoculars, growing angry that Rosalie was “spying” on him. He tells Rosalie that their relationship can’t work anymore, especially with how little Rosalie trusts him. He asks Rosalie if she even loves him anymore.

Rosalie thinks about Nick. She realizes that he is the same person he was when they met, and that she still loves him; however, she also recognizes that he has a chance to be happy. She says that she doesn’t love him anymore. She tells him that he should sell the house, and she will move back in with her parents.

As Nick goes to leave, she desperately wants to stop him and tell him that she still loves him. However, she resists the urge. Instead, she searches the internet for the best way to die by suicide.

That afternoon, movement out the window catches Rosalie’s eye. She sees a new, dark-haired woman going into the hotel. She sees her in the same room that Quinn was in. Rosalie realizes that Quinn must have already left.

As Rosalie watches, Claudia goes downstairs and into the parking lot. She checks on Quinn’s car, then looks up directly at Rosalie. As Claudia starts across the parking lot, Rosalie sees a knife in her hand. Panicked, she texts Nick for help. She then calls 911, but the service is so bad that the call breaks up.

As Rosalie hears Claudia coming up the stairs, she realizes that she doesn’t truly want to die. She thinks of how she should have done physical therapy, tried to reopen her restaurant, and done more to help Nick—instead of becoming dependent on him.

Claudia comes into the room, looking angry. She accuses Rosalie of knowing what happened to her sister. Rosalie insists that she doesn’t know anything about it, but Claudia calls her a liar, as she steps further into the room with the knife raised.