Life & Fable by Guislaine Vincent

Author:Guislaine Vincent [Damas, Guislaine Vincent de]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cinnamon Press
Published: 2025-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

And meanwhile I struggled daily with fatigue, as if I were dragging heavy iron chains around my ankles. A doctor prescribed a pill to be taken once, or even twice a day if I felt the need. It made me light and chatty and zigzaggy with energy lasting a day. The name was Dexedrine. Only years later, living in England, no longer available over the counter and had to stop, did I understand what I was being prescribed was speed, and why I felt so awful for one whole year after.

I had debts, regularly visiting the big pawn shop on West 57th Street, past Henri Bendel and Bergdorf Goodman. I hocked the Van Cleef gold and diamond earrings and brooch in the shape of flowers that Tata Leïla gave me. The gold bracelets and necklaces from my father also went, and a brooch made of Brazilian semi-precious stones which belonged to my mother but was left behind in the care of Leila when she left New York.

Sometimes, on a Sunday, I wandered downtown armed with my precious Konica camera through Wall Street’s deserted echoing canyons, back uptown through the Bowery, drawn to the down and out figures and places. There was a middle-aged man, unshaven, overcoat lapels turned up, arms folded on a shelf, staring out of a bar window from under the brim of his hat. I took the photograph. That’s more than fifty years ago, but the black and white photograph still stands in my cloakroom. Every time I see this black man’s dulled face, vacant eyes, I catch something of myself in the window’s reflection.

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