Portrait

At the moment I first saw the light, I knew nothing. Half-blind, paralyzed, wretched and mindless, I was floundering in complete nothingness, trying not to go mad. Everything was blurred, incomprehensible—except for one face in front of me: the face of my Creator. To me, he was the center of the universe, all-powerful and almighty. I didn’t understand a word of what was being said around me; I didn’t know who those shadows moving everywhere were, why it was light one moment and dark the next, quiet now and loud then. I would slip into unconsciousness and then surface again to the light, called by my Maker.

He called me Laura. And when it became dark and small lights were lit in the room, he would come close and examine my face for hours, feverishly mumbling something to himself. His eyes glittered with madness, and that frightened me a little. He whispered that he loved me, adored me, that he would give everything in the world for me…

I tried to answer that I didn’t understand what he was talking about, that I didn’t know what love was, what passion was. But I couldn’t. I had no voice.