Hello. I'm writer Antoinette Beard... WOO-HOO-HOO!!! This is sensual, bizarre & macabre. Keep scrolling after the posts for much weird info and wonky photos. Also, use the "Search Box" to discover more quirky fascinations. Outwardly, Victorians were conformists, but there are always those who delight in flaunting conventions. ADULT CONTENT, --- naturally. ;)
Friday, March 24, 2023
Thursday, March 9, 2023
My Short Story, "The Lunatic Girl," --- Part 3...
One of the orderlies approached me, a male orderly. He seemed to be leering. He grabbed my upper arm, led me away, down the long room to a bed with a screen behind it.
"Get behind the screen and strip," he said.
"NO!," I answered.
"You will," he almost growled.
"I WON"T!"
He dragged me behind the screen.
"I know why you're here," he said. "You're loose."
"WHAT? How do you know such things? And, I am not loose!"
He smiled, such a creepy smile. "Oh, anyone here, any of us medical persons, can look at the records. I saw you come in. When Ira went away I read the entry book. It said you have female hysteria and you're pregnant. You're unwed. You're pretty. Pretty girls are rare here."
"You're filthy! Get away from me!" I screamed once more.
Why weren't my screams bringing help, or at least attracting a bit of some sort of attention? He held my wrists with his powerful fingers. I struggled. He would rape me. I felt faint, perhaps, partly due to my condition, and, of course, the fright. He stood over me. He had dropped my wrists. I felt so, so sick and very faint. I was on my hands and knees, my mouth open, panting. A little drool fell from my lips. My stays felt like an iron band around my middle.
I woke on the bed, face down on my belly. A dark haired woman was standing next to the bed, her arms folded across her chest. She looked down at me blankly. There was something wrong with her mouth. It looked swollen. 
Then, the woman rushed off.
I closed my eyes. I felt very, very sick, so shakey and ill. I heaved up the contents of my belly, over the edge of the bed. I closed my eyes again. I might have slept a bit, or fainted once more. A loud, harsh female voice woke me.
Lucille!"
She was standing next to the bed, a huge woman, her muscular arms ending in large clenched fists.
"LUCILLE!"
"Yes...," I answered, weakly.
"You vomited, you pig! It will have to be cleaned up! You're clothes are a disgrace! You need to bathe and dress yourself neatly."
She pointed to a small pile of clothing at the foot of the bed.
"Pick those up and follow me."
I did as she asked. We walked down the long room, empty eyes looking at us, the hollow-looking eyes of the inmates of this horrid place. We went throught a door to another big room. This was obviously the washroom. Metal bathtubs lined the walls and there were tables with yellow bars of soap and raggedy towels. The woman filled a tub half full with barely warm water.
"Take a bath!," she ordered.
I did as I was told, extremely embarrassed, as she watched me. I dried myself, put on the clothes. a shapeless gray cotton dress and a pair of long, rough wool stockings.
"Follow me," the woman said. "The clothes you came in will be burned. That soap is very strong. It should have killed any lice. I hope your hair was not as infested as the hair of most of our patients. But, it will be shorn, just in case."
"NO!," I said, touching my still damp locks.
"Humph!," the woman snorted. "It will be, for cleanliness."
--- Copyright 2023, by Antoinette Beard. (To read parts 1 & 2 check the "Search Box".)
Do You Remember The Mad Hatter & The March Hare From "Alice In Wonderland"?...
Rabbits can seem magucal...
A long-held view is that the hare will behave strangely and excitedly throughout its breeding season, which in Europe peaks in the month of March. This odd behavior includes boxing at other hares, jumping vertically for seemingly no reason and generally displaying abnormal behavior. An early verbal record of this animal's strange behavior occurred in about 1500, in the poem Blowbol's Test where the original poet said:
Thanne þey begyn to swere and to stare, And be as braynles as a Marshe hare
(Then they begin to swerve and to stare, And be as brainless as a March hare)
Similar phrases are attested in the sixteenth century in the works of John Skelton (Replycacion, 1528: "Aiii, I saye, thou madde Marche Hare"; Magnyfycence, 1529: "As mery as a marche hare"). A later recorded use of the phrase occurs in the writings of Sir Thomas More (The supplycacyon of soulys made by syr Thomas More knyght councellour to our souerayn lorde the Kynge and chauncellour of hys Duchy of Lancaster. Agaynst the supplycacyon of beggars: "As mad not as a March hare, but as a madde dogge."
Although the phrase in general has been in continuous use since the 16th century, It was popularised in more recent times by Lewis Carroll in his 1865 children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in which the March Hare is a memorable character.
