THE DEPRIVED... Chapter 3... Part 20.

A continuation of my book.

The woman helped her from the couch and led her from the cell and up the steps, leading Beth through a series of passages and up a winding staircase until they came to a locked door, which the woman knocked on. The door was opened by a Master, wearing a white coat.
“You’ll be alright now.” said the woman as Beth was taken in and made to wait while the Master spoke quietly to the woman.
“I will come to see you at some time.” said the woman then left as the Master locked the door.
“Follow me.” ordered the Master.
Beth was lead through two more locked doors and into a large room which had iron cot beds chained to the walls on either side of the room. About the room were littered women, some on the beds and some simply wandering from one part of the room to the other. Some sang while dancing with imaginary partners. Other laughed inanely between conversations with themselves. No-one seemed to take any notice of Beth as she was led to a bed.
“That’s your bed and don’t let any other person lay on it.” said the Master before walking away and closing the door.
Beth heard the key close to the lock and lay on the bed, pulling the thin blanket over her.
“What are you?”
A thin woman with mousy brown hair and a wet loose mouth had stopped dancing in wide circles and now leaned over Beth, looking at her with green eyes that blinked continuously.
Beth didn’t answer which seemed to excite the woman into a barrage of nonsensical questions.
“What are you? Are you from the air and do you spit fire? Or are you from the heavens and an Angel like me?"
The woman became more insistent, shaking Beth by the arm, her green eyes now wide open and staring upwards at the ceiling.
“What are you? Tell me!”
Beth became afraid and answered her.
“I’m an Angel.” she said.
The woman laughed insanely, holding her hands in the air before dancing away and joining the others who paraded in the centre of the room. Beth sobbed quietly, hiding her face beneath the blanket as the noise of laughing and crying, screeching and praying seemed to reach a crescendo. Beth pushed her fingers deep into her ears as she tried to block out the noise but it did little to drown out the madness.

 

At twelve o’clock there seemed to be a calming of noise and Beth raised her head to see the women had begun to sit down by their beds, cross-legged and heads bowed as if in silent prayer or obeying an order without any voice issuing instructions. The door was unlocked and a Master appeared, first to stare round at the women who sat by their beds then to suddenly leave and then to appear once more, this time followed by two other men both dressed in workhouse uniforms and who each carried a large bowl. Their eyes were frightened, shifting quick looks as they moved to the centre of the room and then quickly emptied the bowls onto the floor. The Master let the two men hurry out then blew a shrill blast on a whistle before closing the door shut. For a short while there was silence and Beth waited, her eyes on the food which lay in the middle of the room then jumped in alarm as the women, in one concentrated move jumped to their feet and made a mad rush for the food, fighting each other as they snatched up the food and stuffed it into their mouths like hungry wolves.
As hungry as Beth was she lay still on the bed, horrified at the way the women behaved, like crazy animals. Among the women who fought over the food was the strange green-eyed women who had approached Beth earlier. She seemed empowered with a strength which allowed her to fight off other women, grabbing bread and potatoes which she stuffed into her mouth while at the same time hefting up her nightdress and putting food into the fold. Rising to her feet the woman clutched the fold to her nightdress and danced in crazy little steps towards Beth’s bed. Beth pulled the blanket up over her head and lay still.
“Are you an Angel?” came the voice.
Beth lowered the blanket to see the mad woman leaning over her.
“I have the likes of an Angel.” whispered Beth, not meeting the woman’s green eyes.
The woman raised her head, her green eyes to the ceiling as she howled in manic laughter before suddenly lifting the hem of her nightdress and allowed the food to tip out onto the bed. Suddenly the woman was off, dancing again in a world of her own and Beth drew the food in under the blanket where she hid and ate ravenously, sating her hunger. The women had seemed to settle down once more and back to their normal practice of wandering around the room like unsure Flamingos and happy within their minds. The ‘Angel’, as Beth had decided to call the strange woman with the green eyes had gone to her bed across the room with her eyes on Beth in a most disconcerting way.

Over the coming days, Beth was to learn that the one mealtime was always exactly at twelve o’clock and it was just before that time, a few minutes before that the women somehow seemed to know the time and sat by their beds and waited. Beth became aware of the schedule and realised that she too became aware of the time, the feeding and allowed it must be some animal instinct and that hunger brought about such sensitivity. Each time the food was thrown onto the floor the Angel woman reacted in the same way, fighting for the food and bringing some to Beth, always asking if Beth was an Angel and with Beth always giving the same answer in order to receive the food. The bread seemed to be dipped in water, soggy and breaking up as it hit the mouth and Beth knew that fluid was introduced this way.

On the fifth day Beth was led out of the room by two of the staff and taken back down the series of stairs, back down to the room where she had lain on the couch. She was left alone for a while then looked up as the woman who had taken Beth up from the cell five days earlier came into the room with a smile.
“How are you?” she asked.
Beth did not answer, looking at the woman with wary eyes.
“It’s not nice up there, is it? It’s not nice sharing a ward with mental cases, is it?” asked the woman gently.
Again, Beth made no answer.
“Would you like to go back to your dormitory? Those nasty girls have gone, you know. They were the ones who made you have those terrible nightmares. Just tell me they made you have such bad dreams so you thought what had happened to you was real. Say it was a bad dream which made you make it all up and you will be forgiven.”
Beth felt the tears well up in her eyes, her breast heaving.
“Come on, girl. Let’s both pray to the Lord for forgiveness shall we?” asked the woman, putting her hands together with eyes closing.
“I’m not into fancies like you say!” cried Beth, taking the woman by surprise. “That man took a liberty with my body and was helped in the effort by those girls so I was hurting! It wasn’t a dream and is a real happening to me!”
“Come now, child. You are raving with madness.” soothed the woman as she touched at Beth’s brow.
“It’s real, I tell you!” screamed Beth. “I saw them do it before, to another girl and it was the same Master!”
The woman hurried from the room without a word and slammed the door shut. A short while later the two men in Master uniforms entered the room and held Beth down to the floor, stripping her and binding her before carrying her back into the water-cell, to leave her on the floor as they went out and then returned with the tub of cold water which they tipped over Beth then left, leaving her to lie in the shivering cold.
This treatment was to be carried out twice a week over the next four weeks, each time with the woman asking the same questions and each time getting the same refusal from Beth which lead to the cold-water treatment and then to be left tied until the time when she was untied and her nightdress returned then lead back to the ward and its madness.

 

“Are you an Angel?” asked the green-eyed woman.
“I have the likes of an Angel.” replied Beth, looking at the woman who had then seated herself down beside the bed.
It was not food-time and this was most unusual, the woman only coming to Beth when she had food.
“Lay still and do not look at me. Keep your eyes on the ceiling and answer side-mouthed.”
Beth heard the words coming from the side of the bed and resisted the urge to raise her head and peer over the side of the bed. The woman’s voice was strong and well-toned, lucid and intentional.
“Why are you allowing yourself to be treated this way? You are not mad, so why?” asked the woman.
Beth lay with her eyes on the ceiling as she relayed her reasons for being there and her refusal to accept the terms given to her. Her mouth hardly moved as she spoke, the words clear to the woman who listened.
“Tell them what they want to hear.” said the woman. “It’s too late to repair your body, there’s nothing you can do about that. Be sensible and tell them you lied. It doesn’t matter what you say, it’s better to get out of here than remain here for the rest of your life.”
Beth considered the words, passing them through her mind. It was true her body had been ravished and too late to repair.
“That’s true.” she returned. “Then you explain to me the likes of your happening and why you act in such a strange manner when there’s not a thing wrong with your mind?”
The women chuckled deep in her throat.
“I killed a man who did to me the same as happened to you. He was upper crust and I was to be hung. So I played my part and here I am, safe in madness.”
With that the woman rose to her feet, her arms in the air as she began to dance round the room. Beth followed her movements with her eyes and decided the woman was right and determined the next time she was taken below she would say what the woman wanted to hear.