Mind Of Steel And Clay by Enrique Laso

Author:Enrique Laso [Laso, Enrique]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Babelcube Inc.
Published: 2014-07-13T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Camille’s rage

Montdevergues, 24th of December 1943

Christmas has arrived at the asylum, but there is absolutely nothing to celebrate. The cold and deprivation will make these festive days an utterly dreadful experience, instead of the restorative consolation that brings the child to life inside each and every one of us. For tomorrow we have arranged a special but very simple menu, and will try to put on some performances that the patients have been rehearsing, for lack of anything else to do rather than out of real interest. I am surprised by the enthusiasm shown by some of the doctors and nurses under these awful circumstances. I envy their strong, determined nature that somehow manages to breathe momentary joy into the patients. I, on the other hand, cannot seem to impart even the slightest bit of enthusiasm to the outside world. But nor do I pose as a hurdle to those who are thriving and who try themselves and assist others to forget the dire circumstances we have had to endure.

Every Christmas Camille would experience destructive fits of rage and depression which would last for a week. She would not leave her room, not even if forced, screaming and shouting at everything at Montdevergues that crossed her path. I was fully aware that this violence was born and caused by the extreme hurt she felt, an atrocious injustice that propelled her to rebel until she could no more.

As the years went by, Camille seemed to be adjusting to her cruel confinement. She tolerated the days spent at the asylum in an almost passive way, as though she had already given in to her demise, quite sure that until the end of her days, she would never see another sky than the one that hung over the department of Vaucluse. But on one of her last Christmases, I was woken in the early hours of the morning. One of the nurses came to my room, both concerned and a little embarrassed.

-“Mr. Faret, please forgive me for waking you at this hour. It’s Miss Claudel. She’s out of control, shouting, howling almost like an animal, and she’s making the other patients very anxious. We’ve tried to calm her but she only wants to speak with you.”

By then everyone at Montdevergues was quite used to the strange relationship going on between Camille and I, and in the end they had accepted it as something completely normal. I followed the nurse to the female wing, where almost 700 patients were confined together. It was a while since Camille had voluntarily left her comfortable first class quarters for the gruesome conditions of the third. I found her dressed in a nightgown, her hair in a dishevelled mess, having thrown herself onto the floor by her bed, squealing like a pig who was about to have its head chopped off.

-“Camille!” I said firmly and with authority. Everyone around me jumped at my sudden dictatorial tone of voice, which they were so unaccustomed to, and a deathly silence fell over the room.

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