NOELLE AND CATHERINE
Athens: 1946
19
There were ghosts in white and they floated around her and then drifted away into space
with soft whispers in a language that Catherine could not understand, but she understood
that this was Hell and that she had to pay for her sins. They kept her strapped down on the
bed, and she supposed that was part of her punishment, and she was glad of the straps
because she could feel the earth spinning around through space and she was afraid she was
going to fall off the planet. The most diabolical thing they had done was to put all her
nerves on the outside of her body so that she felt everything a thousandfold, and it was
unbearable. Her body was alive with terrifying and unfamiliar noises. She could hear the
blood as it ran through her veins, and it was like a roaring red river moving through her.
She heard the strokes of her heart, and it sounded like an enormous drum being pounded
by giants. She had no eyelids and the white light poured into her brain, dazzling her with
its brightness. All the muscles of her body were alive, in constant, restless motion like a
nest of snakes under her skin ready to strike.
Five days after Catherine had been admitted to Evangelismos Hospital, she opened
her eyes and found herself in a small, white hospital room. A nurse in a starched white
uniform was adjusting her bed, and Dr. Nikodes had a stethoscope to her chest.
“Hey, that’s cold,” she protested weakly.
He looked at her and said, “Well, well, look who’s awake.”
Catherine moved her eyes slowly around the room. The light seemed normal and she
could no longer hear the roaring of her blood or the pounding of her heart or the dying of
her body.
“I thought I was in Hell.” Her voice was a whisper.
“You have been.”
She looked at her wrists. For some reason, they were bandaged. “How long have I
been here?”
“Five days.”
She suddenly remembered the reason for the bandages. “I guess I did a dumb thing,”
she said.
“Yes.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and said, “I’m sorry,” and opened them and it was night
and Bill Fraser was sitting in a chair beside her bed, watching her. Flowers and candy