Castle to Castle (51 page)

"Yes, yes, Madame . . ."

They took it off . . . I don't think there was any point . . . no point at all . . . they just took it into their heads . . ."

Ah, how funny they were in Versailles! stupid! it made her laugh! Hee! hee! in stitches!

"If you could only have seen them, Doctor! Hee! Hee!"

She's having a convulsion! so idiotic those people at the hospital! . . . really hilarious . . . they'd thought she had cancerl hee! hee! hee!

"Can you imagine, Doctor? Can you imagine?"

Those people at the hospital! Really too funny! too funny! Hee! Hee!

"Oh, you're perfectly right, Madame! perfectly right!"

With Madame Niçois they'd seen what was what! oh, not a doubt! . . . she had cancer all right! . . . the galloping kind in fact . . . she hadn't long to live, poor woman!

"You think so too, don't you, Doctor?"

"Oh yes, certainly, Madame . . ."

She's hee-hee-heeing again . . . all of a sudden I strike her as just too funny . . . same as the other doctors . . . me too!

"I'm going to call you Dr. Stringbean! . . . it seems you haven't any patients left! hee! hee! hee! not a single patient! . . . Madame Niçois has told me! . . . not a one . . . hee! . . . hee! . . . all about it! . . ."

At the same time she smacks her thighs! . . . real clouts!
crack! smack!
and me too . . and Madame Niçois!
crack! smack!
with all her might! really the life of the party!

I risk a question: "How old are you, Madame?"

"Same as her . . . seventy-two next month! but look at her, Doctor! the state she's in! . . . you've noticed, haven't you, Dr. Stringbean! hee! hee! hee! . . . and look at me! . . . feel my muscle! I've never felt so peppy! they thought I was the same as her! they wanted to take off both breasts! . . . see here, Dr. Stringbean! those people have cancer on the brain! all they can see is cancer! maniacs! luckily I stuck up for myself! I was right, wasn't I? Wasn't I right, Dr. Stringbean?"

Ah, how funny they were in that hospital! she gives me some more smacks!
biff! bang!
. . . and a few to Madame Niçois . . . poor old thing with her cancer! she should have a little fun too!
bang!

"Call me Madame Armandine! You will, Doctor?"

"Where do you live, Madame Armandine?"

"With her naturally! At her house! . . . We live together! . . . she's got a big place! You've been there . . ."

There's a nice little arrangement that promises plenty of good times . . . they're really close friends . . .

"The surgeon insisted: Take somebody with you . . . don't stay alone . . .'I live in Le Vesinet, you see . . . Le Vesinet is far . . . From Sevres . . . with the buses . . . I can go to Paris whenever I feel like it! she doesn't need me the whole time . . ."

She's got her convulsions back . . . her hee-hee-hee's and wiggles! . . . and another clout for Madame Niçois!

I can see she's a little nervous . . . in fact she's definitely cracked . . . but she's got a land of youthful vigor for seventy-two! cancer and all . . . and even a certain coquetry . . . that plaid skirt, for instance . . . pleated! and the blue on her eyebrows and eyelashes! . . . and her raincoat, more blue! . . . and the color of her eyes . . . china-blue . . . and makeup on her cheeks . . . pastel pink! . . . you get the picture? . . . and smiling like a doll . . . pert and comely . . . she only stops smiling long enough for her little spells of hee-hee! . . . sadness isn't in her line! Madame Niçois has got herself some companion, she won't be bored! though it doesn't seem to make her talk! she doesn't say a word! . . . I ask her how she's feeling . . . better? . . . no answer . . . of course there's the fatigue, the path, the hill . . . I look at her more closely . . . her face . . . one side looks very set . . . the right half . . . one corner of her mouth is down and won't come up . . . like Thorez! . . . oh, but Armandine answers for her . . . she knows all about it . . . she was in the next bed . . . they hadn't just treated Madame Niçois for her cancer . . . hee hee! hee! . . . she was there! she knows . . . hee! hee! hee! she had a stroke besides! . . . no kidding! . . . her whole side paralyzed! . . . Yes! hee! hee! . . . that's why she doesn't talk . . . a stroke! . . . Armandine talks enough for two! . . . I don't think Madame Niçois is listening to her . . .

"You see, she makes in her pants! . . . hee! hee! hee!"

She reassures me . . . sh'ell keep her clean!

"After all, we're living together! . . . cleanliness first! . . . I'm used to old people! . . . You can set your mind at rest, Doctor! . . ."

"Fine! . . . fine! . . . glad to hear it! but what about her dressings?"

"You'll come and do them every day! . . . the surgeon insisted! and the applications! He said you'd know what to do!"

She saw I was a little hesitant . . .

"We made it up here . . . you can certainly come down to see us, can't you, Doctor?"

"Certainly, Madame Armandine!"

"You won't have to do anything for me! . . . not a thing! they couldn't get over it in Versailles the way I mended! quicker than the young chickens! only a week! in one week, I was all healed up! they couldn't get over it! hee! hee! look, you can see for yourself! . . . and Madame can look too! your wife! . . . they say she's a dancer! look!"

She gets up off the bench, she goes out into the middle of the lawn . . . she lifts up her skirts . . . hoopla! . . . and her petticoats! . . . and she bends back! she does a complete backbend! as supple as can be! . . . and up goes one leg, straight as a die! . . . like the Eiffel Tower! . . . actually you can see the Eiffel Tower from our lawn . . . oh, way in the distance . . . and almost always in the mist . . .

"Bravo! . . . bravo!"

We applaud . . . she stayed like that for a while . . . with her leg in the air . . . and then she stands up . . . as supple as can be! . . . and fixes herself . . . her eyelashes, her eyes, beauty! . . . a pencil stroke on her eyelashes . . . she has everything she needs in her schoolbag . . . a mirror, her powder, her rouge . . . and probably a lot of other little things . . . a very big schoolbag! . . . Claudine at School! . . . I wonder what Madame Annandine did in the world . . . I won't ask her . . .she'll certainly tell me . . .

"I'll be down to see you tomorrow, Madame Armandine . . . tomorrow afternoon . . . after my consultation . . ."

"No, no! this evening! she needs it! . . . this evening, Doctor . . . hee! hee! hee! . . . Stringbean!"

She seems a little demanding to me . . .

"All right! all right! . . . I'll be there . . ."

She wasn't the kind of woman you could contradict . . .

GLOSSARY

ABBREVIATIONS

C.S.A.R
     
Comité Secret de l'Action Révolutionnaire

F.F.I.          
Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur

F.T.P.
        
Francs Tireurs Partisans

L.V.F.
         
Légion des Volontaires Français centre le Bolchévisme

M.S.R.
        
Mouvement Social Révolutionnaire

P.P.F.         
Parti Populaire Français

R.N.P.
        
Rassemblement National Populaire

2.
VRENCHMEN.
(
Vrounzais
in original). This coinage expresses Céline's contempt for real or alleged "furriners" who claim to be French although they allegedly can't speak the language properly.

2.
PACHON.
One of the standard French apparatuses for measuring blood pressure. Named after its inventor, Michel-Victor Pachon.

4.
GRÉVIN.
Waxworks museum on the Boulevard Montmarte in Paris, founded by Alfred Grevin (1827-1892).

5.
ARTICLE 75.
Article 75 of the French penal code, Book III, Title I, Chapter I, Section I, states that the crime of treason is punishable by death and lists the actions coming under this head: bearing arms against France, "intelligence in time of war with a foreign power or its agents, with a view to favoring the undertakings of that power against France," etc. 

6.
DREYFUS'S ROCK-PILE.
Le bagne Renault
, the Renault penal colony. The Renault factories, of which Pierre Dreyfus (born in 1907) has been the director since 1955. Before the second world war,
"le bagne Renault"
was the standard term used for these factories in Communist propaganda.

6.
GASTON'S ROCK-PILE.
By extension, the Gallimard publishing house, directed by Gaston Gallimard. Founded in 1911 as the Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française, it is one of the leading French publishing houses and has published much of the best modern French literature, including the later works of Céline. Gaston Gallimard may well figure in the present work under a pseudonym.

8.
PÉTIOT.
Dr. Pétiot (1893-1946). Between 1942 and 1944 he murdered 27 persons, for the most part Jews, whom he lured to his premises by promising to smuggle them out of the occupied zone of France. He was tried, convicted and executed in 1946.

8.
ABBÉ PIERRE.
Pseudonym of Henri Groues, born in 1912. Entered the Church and took the name of Abbé Pierre in 1942. Founded the Association d'Emmaüs (1951), devoted largely to building emergency housing for the homeless.

8.
JUANOVICI.
Joseph Joinovici or Joanovici, known as Monsieur Joseph. Rumanian Jew, came to France from Bessarabia in 1925. Founded his own scrap-metal firm. In 1939 Joinovici Frères was a thriving concern. After the French defeat, transferred nominal ownership of his business but remained effectively in charge and supplied metal to WIFO, a Berlin firm. Obtained forged records proving his Aryan origin. Operated on black market, purchasing metal for the Germans. Later confessed to having made 25 million francs under the Occupation. Member of the Bonny-Laffont police group, working for the Germans. At the same time worked for the Resistance, helped Jews, hid American parachutists, and worked for Honneur et Police, the Resistance group in the French police.

Well-known Resistants later testified in his favor. Responsible for the arrest of Bonny and Laffont after the Liberation. He, too, was arrested but soon released. The authorities decided again to arrest him. Fled to the American zone of Germany but gave himself up in 1947. Tried in 1949, condemned to five years in prison, a fine of 600,000 F. and confiscation of his holdings to the amount of 50 million francs. Freed in 1951, placed under house arrest at Mende, whence he escaped to Israel.

After the French government opened proceedings against him for tax fraud in 1957, Israel refused him the status of immigrant and he was expelled in December, 1958. Imprisoned in Marseille. Tried, acquitted of tax fraud but held on two other charges. In 1961, condemned to two prison terms of one year each for issuing bad checks. Released in 1962, he died in Clichy in 1965 at the age of 63.

8.
LATZAREF.
Pierre Lazareff, French journalist born in 1907. Directed
Paris-Soir
from 1937 to 1940. During the war directed the French section of the War Information Office, first in New York, then in London. Now director of
France Soir
and other publications.

9.
BOILEAU, RACINE.
One wonders what Boileau and Racine are doing here. The idea is that they were in some measure historians of Louis XIV, their feed bag.

10.
GNÔME ET RHÔNE.
This is an allusion to Paul Claudel (1868-1955), ambassador, poet and dramatist. He was a member of the board of the firm of Gnôme et Rhône, specialists in the manufacture of armaments.

10.
Denoël.
Publisher in 1932 of Céline's first important work,
Journey to the End of the Night
. Assassinated in 1945. His body was found during the night of December 3, 1945, at the corner of the Boulevard des Invalides and the rue de Grenelle. He was killed while trying to repair his stalled car.

11.
PURGES.
The measures taken to cleanse the French administration of persons accused of collaborating with the German Occupation. Many professional groups also purged themselves, not always very equitably.

12.
VAILLANT.
Roger Vailland (1907-1965), French writer, author of
Drôle de Jeu
(1945),
la Loi
(1957), etc. Member of the Communist party, active in the Resistance.

14.
"CROSSES."
Possibly an allusion to traffic in Swiss gold coins.

15.
RENAULT IN FRESNES.
Louis Renault (1877-1944), the famous builder of automobiles and tanks, collaborated with the Germans. Imprisoned after the liberation, he is believed to have died as a result of bad treatment incurred in Fresnes prison.