Elephant Man - Christine Sparks [49]
Many times he had tried to look back into the very beginning, to see his mother’s face as he must have seen it then—as though it were imprinted on his mind and by diligent searching he would uncover it. But no memory came to his aid. There was only the picture to remind him, and gradually the printed face had attached itself to his impressions, and when he remembered his mother now it was always with the clear features of the photograph.
He knew—again without knowing how he knew—that his mother had been tragically caught in the path of a stampeding elephant before his birth. She had escaped injury but the creature’s slimy trunk had slithered over her and her horror had been so great that it had communicated itself to the child within her, and he had been born with elephant characteristics. For some reason after that they had been forced to part, and this was a great puzzle to which he returned time and time again, for he knew his mother loved him very much and would not willingly have let him go.
Her failure to return for him he explained easily enough. Ugly as he had been as a child, he knew he had become uglier as he grew, until now he was of a monstrousness that far outstripped his baby deformity. He knew too that somehow his repellent aspect must be a punishment for some great wickedness. What it had been he could not imagine, but it was so deeply ingrained in him that everybody saw it but himself. And his mother had heard of it, and perhaps blamed him. So she never came back. She was waiting for him to learn to be better. When the time came, she would find him somehow.
As the light failed the picture darkened to nothing, and he slipped it back into his pocket. He wondered if he dared let himself sleep, or if he would be visited again by the bully who had appeared on the two previous nights. He longed to tell Treves and beg that something should be done to protect him, but he did not dare. He trusted Treves, but he did not trust the world. If he mentioned what had happened to him then somehow—he did not exactly know how—somehow the bully would know, and would come for him when Treves was not there. He must just keep quiet and bear it, as he had kept quiet and borne so much in his life.
Within an hour he knew his worst fears were to be fulfilled. The footsteps were heavier this time and approached faster. Renshaw might have been coming on a leisurely sightseeing trip before, but this time he had a deadly purpose. He burst into the room and stood over Merrick, staring at him malevolently.
“I hear you’re ’aving some trouble sleeping,” he said. Then he moved quickly, grabbing Merrick by his thin hair and jerking his head back.
At once Merrick felt himself begin to choke as his supply of air was cut off. He grabbed uselessly at Renshaw with his left hand, wheezing and gasping noisily. Renshaw’s little eyes gleamed with sudden understanding.
“Head’s too heavy, eh?” he said. He leaned forward, pulling his victim all the way down to the bed so that the constriction in Merrick’s throat increased and he had to fight for breath. Renshaw kept on talking in a monotone.
“And I heard a nasty rumor about you. I heard you can talk. But you can’t, can you—?” He jerked again on the hair. “Can you—can you?”
“Nooooo—” Merrick managed to gasp.
Renshaw looked at him in surprise. Despite the rumors he had heard he had not seriously expected the Elephant Man to be able to understand and answer him. He gave a wolfish grin of pleasure at his victim’s desperation.
“No—no you can’t. Because one word about me out of that stinking cakehole—just one word, and you’ll ’ave no trouble sleeping. No trouble at all. You understand me? Do you?”
“Yyyee-ess,” Merrick managed to croak. He felt blackness descending on him. Just in time Renshaw let him go and strolled casually to the door. There he turned to enjoy the sight of his victim gulping in huge breaths.
“Don’t forget,” he said. “Just—don’t forget.”
Then he was gone.
Chapter 9
It took time to persuade the Elephant Man to speak about himself, and even longer for the story to come