Leonora (20 page)

But yes, Leonora is an abandoned child, what's happening to her is quite enough to make her lose her reason.

‘What reason? What's this reason they all keep talking about?' She pulls up short in front of a young man dressed in overalls, staring at her curiously before saying, in Spanish:

‘Good afternoon.'

‘Are you
Alberto
, my magic horse, possessed of mysterious powers to climb up and down the cosmic tree?'

‘Perhaps I am,' and he smiles.

‘Where am I?' she asks him.

‘In Spain,' he replies.

‘The vegetation is a lot like in Ireland, despite the fact that the people I see around me make me think that I'm on another planet.'

‘This is another world inhabited by a different civilisation,' the man continues, still smiling.

‘And as for Alice, where is she? Because I think I've fallen down the same bottomless rabbit hole.'

The carer catches up with her and explains that the young man is a gardener working at the asylum, among the various pavilions housing radiography, the solarium, the Villa Pilar, the Villa Covadonga, the library, the administration offices, the garden alongside the dining rooms for the admin offices, and the consulting rooms for Doctors Mariano and Luis Morales. She points out the door through which the father and son come to work and there, at the end, stands the finest of all the pavilions and the most modern, the convalescent home that everyone there calls Down Below, since it is the door to freedom.

23

THE TWO DOCTORS MORALES

D
R. MARIANO MORALES' FAME
spread far and wide, and Frau Asegurado and the rest of the nurses and orderlies take great pride in propagating it.

‘This estate is his property,' conjectures the German nurse, ‘and it extends as far as Peñacastillo. As well as the central citadel, Don Mariano had the pavilions built to his personal specifications and under his personal supervision. He is clearly concerned not simply for the health of his patients but also because he wants them to have space in which to relax, where they can occupy themselves in drawing, painting and playing the piano. He is a specialist in mental pathology, and renowned throughout Europe. As is his son. So calm down, you are in the best of hands, and now we are going to sit down,' and she takes Leonora by the arm.

‘You're talking of the Doctors Morales as if they were gods.'

‘They are, for they will determine your fate,' and the nurse pulls a hideous smile.

‘Rather than be in their hands, I'd far prefer to be in Alberto's arms, and he's a doctor too.'

The nurse affects not to hear her.

‘I would like to draw a map of the different pavilions, although I would prefer to give them different names such as Jerusalem, Africa, Amachu and Egypt, in order to feel that I can travel to other continents. Can you obtain some paper and pencil for me to draw the map?'

‘Patients tend to aspire towards the impossible,' the nurse replies.

Leonora agrees to sit down on a bench, the sheet of paper on her lap. She draws a confusing labyrinth incorporating disparate places, through which she hopes to find a way back to St. Martin d'Ardèche, Crookhey Hall, Hazelwood, or her flat on the Rue Jacob, all set among trees and towers, staircases, bars and crosses, tracing a lengthy and shaky wall to encompass all the pavilions.

‘It's the only hope I have of not losing the way.'

The nurse has grown bored with the efforts of her patient, who keeps repeating in anguish:

‘I have to find the way.'

‘The way to the light?' enquires the nurse, with irony.

To her surprise, someone behind the thick railings of the pavilion Down Below calls out to her:

‘Leonora, Leonora.'

Stupefied, Leonora asks: ‘Who are you?'

‘Alberto!'

The doctor who so loves her is in Santander, in order to carry her away.

Leonora starts running like a deer, gathering strength and agility and jumping with joy among the apple trees.

‘Alberto loves me. Alberto!'

Frau Asegurado is unable to see any Alberto. Now out of breath, she has lost control of Leonora and the auxiliary, Piadosa, appears with Moro, a black dog, in her wake. Leonora runs faster and further than anyone, she gallops like a mare again. Alberto has come for her, the best thing that could possibly happen.

The chase is directed by a tall fat man thundering after her, whom Leonora recognises as a powerful type. ‘He's the one who will give the order to stop my persecution.' Reassured, she retraces her steps and, on confronting him, notices that he has protruding eyes that dissect her with blue rays, just like Van Ghent's did. No doubt this man with pale eyes who is holding out his hand to her is in cahoots with the gang of all those at Imperial Chemical.

Leonora darts off again, leaving him standing there with his hand held out. She is the mare of the night, no-one can touch her, her black hair streams behind her and the doctor enjoys the chase up until the point where, at a bend in the path, two male nurses appear named José and Santos, and proceed to throw themselves at her. José is tall and athletic; Santos robust and clean-shaven. Leonora measures up to her attackers, distributing kicks, for her desperation gives her supernatural strength. Finally the male nurses fling a breathless Leonora at the feet of Don Luis. José pins down her torso, while Santos and Frau Asegurado take care of her arms and legs. The nurse makes use of a moment of inattention to stick a needle in her. What are they injecting into her? By what right can they do this? No sooner have they released her than she launches herself like a wild beast upon Dr. Luis Morales, pounding him on the chest, scratching him until he bleeds, until Santos comes up behind her and grabs her by the neck. Luis Morales scarpers, adjusts his white coat, and frog-marches Leonora into the Villa Covadonga.

José and Santos tie her down naked to the bed. Don Luis enters the room and studies her. Leonora asks why they are holding her prisoner and treating her so badly. The doctor vanishes without replying to her questions.

‘Don Luis is your doctor,' Frau Asegurado informs her.

‘Does he live here?'

‘No.'

‘This is the first time I've seen him and I can't remember a thing.' Leonora is afraid, and swears to herself that from now on no-one else will come into her room to interrogate her. How many more things can happen to her over which she has no control?

That night, Leonora forces herself to stay awake, solely by willpower. She keeps repeating: ‘I won't let them take possession of me again, I won't let them annihilate me,' until she sees Frau Asegurado come in and untie her.

‘Here, take your medicine,' and she holds out a pill and a glass of water.

‘What is it?'

‘Disinfectant.'

‘What is this medicine called?'

‘I've already told you. Swallow it.'

‘No, I am not going to take anything when I don't know what it is.'

‘The person in charge here is the doctor.'

‘No, I am in charge of myself.'

‘In which case we shall have to give you another injection.'

‘I won't tolerate even one more injection, nor that you block my path every time I try to take a step.'

Leonora jumps off her bed and runs across the room to lock herself in the bathroom. Her weight is so strong against the door that Frau cannot open it, and calls for Dr. Luis Morales.

‘If you do not take your medicine, we shall be obliged to give you another injection, and your body is already badly bruised. Kindly do yourself the favour of obeying.'

‘If I didn't obey my father, I am even less likely to obey
you
.'

Thanks to José, she manages to send Don Luis a sheet of paper with a triangle drawn on it, to explain why she was called to save the world, and why the Dutchman Van Ghent should be locked up instead of her.

Don Luis receives her in his consulting room, indicating a chair where she should be seated in front of him.

‘I possess certain powers,' Leonora gesticulates, ‘many powers. When I see adverts on the streets of Madrid I can divine what is behind them, just like whenever I see tinned food, I can see the contents inside. If I read the names Amazon Company or Imperial Chemical, I can see all the way back to the fields or farms and impose quality control. When the phone rings and I pick it up to say “hello,” and then a voice does not answer, I know who it is. In any café in Madrid, or in the lobby of the Hotel Roma, I could descry anyone's most secret intentions just by listening to the vibrations of their voice. Even with my back turned to the door, I could tell who was coming into the room, and I correctly identified Catherine and Michel or Van Ghent and Van Ghent's son.'

‘Carry on,' the doctor encourages her.

‘I could also understand every language, including even Irish. At times like that I adored myself, I revered myself – how omnipotent I was! – I contained everything within me. I congratulated myself because my eyes had miraculously become solar systems; my movements, a great dance of freedom; and I, integral to this dance, was about to save the city. In Madrid I listened to the song
Ojos Verdes
– and knew it to be a sign from the Cosmos, because Gerard has green eyes, as do both Alberto and Michel Lukacs – who got me out of St. Martin d'Ardèche – and the young Argentine who looked at me so sympathetically on the train.'

‘Could you draw a map of your journey from St. Martin d'Ardèche to here?' Morales asks her, and sets her to work tracing her route all the way from France to Spain.

Leonora is unable to comply, or to satisfy him. Don Luis takes the pencil from her hand and sketches the itinerary of her journey himself. At the centre of the page he puts an M for Madrid. It is just at that moment that Leonora has a first flash of enlightenment: the M refers to her and not to
mundo
, to the world. If she can manage to reconstruct this itinerary, she can also re-establish communication between her mind and body.

The Morales are lords of the universe, using their powers to sow terror. She will overthrow them and set her companions there free.

The following afternoon an unknown man with a doctor's briefcase in his hand pauses at her bedside:

‘I have come to take some blood we need for a test. I shall be back in a minute with Don Luis.'

To which Leonora replies: ‘Either you or Don Luis, I only receive one doctor at a time, and I am not willing to accept any injections on any pretext at all.'

The man with the briefcase starts arguing, and in return Leonora insults him. She prepares to leap out at him, and he moves swiftly aside. When Don Luis enters, Leonora announces:

‘I'm leaving.'

Suave and insinuating, Don Luis explains the blood sampling to her.

Leonora wants to reply to him but from her mouth again Hitler, Franco and their infamous alliance emerge, and their bombings; she holds the key to ending the war, and she can now count on an ally, her lover Alberto, the doctor waiting outside for her.

‘Where are you Alberto? Alberto has come to my rescue! O, Alberto, Alberto, Alberto! Alberto loves me! Albertooo!'

All of a sudden José, Santos, Frau Asegurado and Piadosa enter together and a white avalanche falls on top of her, covering her like a shroud: two hands clasp her legs, others stretch out one of her arms and, just before they stab her with the needle, she manages to ask:

‘Why are you treating me so badly? Can't you understand that I'm a mare?'

Leonora coughs, then yells. Her muscles contract, spasms race from her womb to her breast, her head is thrown back, her jawbone seems to be dislocated. Her mouth opens in an immense, terrifying grimace.

‘Don't let her over-arch her back, she could fracture her spinal column,' Luis Morales orders, taking out his stethoscope, because the heartbeat accelerates in such a manner that it could easily race towards its final spasm.

Frau Asegurado, José and Santos immobilise Leonora's arms and legs. In the case of other patients, the administration of Cardiazol had resulted in multiple fractures, one had even fallen and broken his entire vertebral column. Leonora moves around more than most, and her breasts are shaking.

‘She's so very young,' says José. ‘She has the strong legs of a well-built woman, the muscles are long, and it's obvious she does a lot of sport.'

Luis Morales agrees with the male nurse.

‘What a shame,' José interrupts once more. ‘She's a good-looking girl.'

A convulsion in her vital organs sends Leonora back up to the surface so rapidly she feels vertiginous. She sees again those blue eyes with their fixed and frightening stare and howls:

‘I don't want it, I don't want this impure force within me! I am growing, I am growing bigger and bigger, and I am afraid!'

A current slices into her forehead and a shaft of pain crosses her body, doubles her over, and she's left rigid. She is still just about able to think that nothing better than death could happen to her, when the electricity crackles and emits sparks: ‘It's my neurons. They're turning me into a lettuce leaf.'

The Cardiazol provokes something akin to an epileptic attack.

Later on, José confirms that her fit lasted for several minutes; convulsed, hideous, every part of her body, including her arms and wrists, her breasts and belly, were becoming twisted and deformed:

‘Look, just so that you understand me: your head was sizzling, your skin was scraped, we placed a rag between your teeth so that you couldn't bite your tongue. When the convulsions began you stopped shouting. This form of treatment also produces diarrhoea, the patient loses all control of their bodily functions, tries to speak but only unintelligible sounds emerge.'

‘José, if it were up to you, and you were a doctor, would you use this form of therapy?'

‘This is the treatment offered to the incurable.'

‘The incurable?'

‘Yes. Your records read: “Incurable”.'

‘I don't understand.'

‘It means that there is no remedy for your insanity.'