Screenland (Jan–Jun 1948)

He couldn't make her stay. And that was the last time he saw her for six months. When he didn't hear from her he had taken the job in New York, and he'd been so lonely that at first he thought he was just imagining things when he met her on the street. And then it had been the way it was before, except that now he was always asking her to marry him and she was always refusing. Then one night at the movies there was an announcement of a picture which would begin playing there on May 12th. He remembered the date because her eyes looked so frightened staring at it on the screen. By the time it was really May 12, they were married. He had asked her so many times, but that evening when they left the movies it was she who asked him, there on a crowded subway plat Ar right, Ty at reception with Mayor and Mrs. Heerden. Below, a radio interview. form with people pushing them as they tried to get into the crowded trains. It was so wonderful he couldn't believe his luck at first. But the wonderful part only lasted two days. She began acting strange then. She couldn't sleep and she was restless. But then that morning at breakfast she had seemed herself again, almost happy as she smiled at him. "It's such a beautiful day," she had said. "Almost too beautiful for November." "What do you mean, November?" he had grinned. "This is May. May 12." And he pushed the morning paper over to her. The nightmare began when she had jumped up from the table shouting hysterically. "Who are you? Why do you torture me? Why do you lie to me?" And as he had tried to take her in his arms she pushed him away. "No, you can't make me love you. You can't make me belong to you. You can't, you can't!" Robert felt the same icy edge of terror he had felt then, just talking about it. "The rest you know, Doctor," he said heavily. "And you have no idea what that day in May might mean to your wife?" Dr. Kik asked. As Robert shook his head, he looked down at the folder again. "Mr. Cunningham, I'd like to use shock treatment on your wife. In many cases it helps break through the patient's shell and establish contact much quicker. When that happens we'll be able to start getting at the real causes of your wife's illness." "Do you have to?' Robert demanded apprehensively. He bit his lips. "I don't know if it's because she's so helpless now, or because I love her so much, but somehow I feel more responsible than ever." "I've been trying to get through to her for over four months now," the doctor said. "There's lots of things we're short of in state hospitals, most of all time. But you'd have to sign a form." "I guess it was the word shock that — " Robert tried to get his voice under control again. "Where do I sign, Doctor?" They couldn't fool her. Not Virginia! They were strapping her on to a table and Miss Davis, the blonde nurse with the icy blue eyes, smeared some jelly on her forehead, and afterwards the man with the voice clamped electrodes over it and another man standing beside the control box at one side of the table had his hand on the switch waiting for the signal. "You're going to electrocute me!" Virginia screamed. The nurse slipped something into her mouth and her teeth shut down hard on the gag. The voice was saying something in a gentle comforting way but Virginia was too terrified to listen. Her wild eyes looked at the dull red eye on the box and suddenly it began glowing and then there was nothing. Nothing at all. Then one day she woke up and nothing was blurred. Nothing was unreal. The man with the voice was standing over her bed, but it seemed no longer strange seeing him there. "Dr. Kik," she asked, "how long have I been here?" "You came in May," his voice was excited, the way it always was when patients began responding. "This is October." "June, July, August, September," Virginia counted carefully. "Five months! And I don't remember a moment of it." "You've been ill, Mrs. Cunningham," he said gently. "But you're better now. Very much better." The blank places still came, but not so often now. There was the day Grace helped her into her own clothes, the gray suit she had liked so much that she had bought it even though it were a little tight. But now it hung around her in folds. But she didn't mind that. It felt so wonderful to be wearing her own clothes again. Then Miss Hart took her outside and she saw Robert sitting on one of the benches. That is, it looked like Robert, but Virginia knew she had to be careful. It could be an actor made up to look like him. But he even sounded like him when he spoke. And he was kind, the way Robert was. He'd brought along a box and when he opened it she was so happy she almost cried. It was a picnic lunch, chicken and coffee with real cream and plenty of sugar, wonderful little cakes with chocolate icing, all the things she had been dreaming about and thought she would never taste again. It was fun having someone offer her a cigarette again, too, instead of just taking one from the crumpled pack in the candy box she used for a bag these days. "May I light it myself, please?" she asked eagerly. "And could you possibly let me have some matches, to keep, I mean? They won't let us have any matches, as if we were children. They don't cost much, do they?" "I haven't any matches," Robert said in a, funny voice. And then he took out a silver lighter. She remembered that lighter with the initial R.C. engraved on it. She had bought it for him, just as he had bought the gray suit she was wearing for her. "You are Robert!" she said tremulously. And she was so happy until he tried to take her in his arms. For the terror came back then in her eyes, in her hands pushing him away from her. It was a few days later Dr. Kik gave her the narcosynthesis injection. She knew she was getting better when he explained why he was giving it to her, to help her remember things. And it was strange, and frightening, too, how she did begin remembering. The terror was there, as real as it had been that day in Chicago, running away from Robert. She had to get home to Evanston. It was May 12, and she had suddenly remembered that she was going to a dinner party with Gordon who lived next door. ScREENLAND 5.5