Helen returned to the viewroom and stared at the glass. Maja gave Dr. Franks the note. He looked to the glass and smiled.
"Is Ruda your twin?"
"Yes! Yes, Ruda and me, me and Ruda...!"
"I see. I understand now, and Ruda is inside you?"
"Yes! Yes!"
She tugged at the blanket, her brow furrowed.
"What are you doing?... Rebecca? Can you hear my voice, tell me if you can hear my voice? Rebecca?"
She was in a dark airless room, it was so cold outside, but in this room it was always hot.
"Hot, I'm hot..."
"Where, can you tell me where you are?"
She replied without hesitating, as though she were reciting, "Hospital Wing C Thirty-three, Hut Forty-two."
Franks removed the blanket, but she didn't seem to notice.
She was watching the white gloves lay out the cards, one by one. She could smell him, he was telling her to concentrate on the cards. "Remember the cards, Rebecca, keep on looking at the cards, remember the cards..."
Franks asked Rebecca to listen only to his voice, but she sat up, bolt upright, and her head began to swing from right to left and back again.
Franks asked what she was doing. She didn't answer. He told her to hear her mother's voice, to stay calm.
She kept on shaking her head from side to side, a set expression on her face. She saw the white gloves move to the curtain. She wasn't ready, but the curtain began to move slowly back, and then she saw Ruda, held up by the woman. Ruda gave Rebecca a tiny wave of her hand. She was so thin, her body was covered with sores, and Rebecca had to remember.
Franks became concerned — Vebekka was still sitting upright, tugging and pulling at her clothes.
"Rebecca, listen to me, can you hear me?"
Again she did not answer. She had to get the colors right, she had to get the colors right. The same persuasive voice spoke to her again, "Feed your sister the colors, feed them to her, make her call out the colors and she will have sweets, she will have toys... come along, my pretty one, the curtain will be closing, I am closing the curtain."
Vebekka lay stiff. Franks checked her pulse, it was very fast. She was not responding to him, she seemed not to hear him.
"Rebecca, listen to me, move forward in time, listen to my voice!"
She spoke in German, still paying no attention to Franks. Her words came out like small rapid bullets: "Red, red, blue, red, green, blue, red, blue, red, red, red, red, red, blue, green..."
Franks pressed his emergency button for Maja to enter. Vebekka continued to call out the colors as Maja moved to his side. She carried an electrode box.
The baron looked to Helen. "Dear God, what is happening in there?"
Helen, though unsure, tried to calm him. "It's all right, he knows what he is doing."
"Red, blue, green, red, red, red, green, blue, red, green..."
Vebekka suddenly became quiet, her voice trailing away, her head slumped onto her chest.
"Rebecca, Rebecca, can you hear me?"
She murmured, and he signaled to Maja that he didn't need the electrode box. He moved close to the sofa, held Vebekka's hand and spoke softly to her, bringing her back to consciousness. She seemed drugged, her voice slurred. "Yes, I can hear you."
Franks asked where she was. She remained silent; he asked again, telling her to listen to his voice, her mama's voice was gone, just to hear his, he wanted her to recall what she had just been telling him, it was important she remember...
They watched her as she slowly came to, and then Dr. Franks held her hand. "Sleep for a little while now, sleep and when you wake up you will feel well, you will be able to discuss everything we have talked about, do you hear me?"
"Yes, I can hear you."
"Who am I?"
"Dr. Franks."
"Who are you?"
"My real name is Rebecca, but I call myself Vebekka."
Franks relaxed; he dabbed his head with his handkerchief. He asked Maja to sit by the sofa, then walked out.
Helen and the baron joined Franks in his office. "Well, now we know... your wife had been hypnotized by her mother to forget something, possibly in an attempt to help her. But the outcome, as you more than anyone else know, has been catastrophic. She will need many sessions, we have just begun."
Helen could not sit, she started to pace the floor. "As you know, Mengele experimented with tiny children, in particular on identical twins, preferably females, but first he had to establish which twin was most responsive."
Franks took down a number of books from his shelves. "We will need to study all the records of Mengele's tests. Rebecca was repeating some kind of code — the colors were spoken not in French or English, but in German! Yet she has maintained she does not speak German."
The baron was visibly upset, and sat in a state of complete confusion. Not being able to stand it any longer, he blurted out: "I don't think you have any idea what you are doing. How can you go on with this? Don't you think she has suffered enough as a child? Now you want to take it a further step. I refuse to allow this, I refuse!"
Franks stopped him gently but firmly. "You cannot wish this, you cannot leave her in limbo. We have brought to the surface some of the horrors inside her and she will need extensive therapy to be able to control them and come to terms with..."
"No, I refuse!"
Franks looked at Helen. "Perhaps you need to discuss this in private."
Franks walked out of the room. The man needed some time to come to his senses. They had made incredible progress, and he was sure with therapy Rebecca could come to terms with her past.
He walked down the corridor to his study. Vebekka was sitting up, her feet on the ground, but her hair looked tousled, as if she had been deeply asleep.
"How is my sleeping beauty?" he asked gently.
"A bit shaky, but she's still here."
He opened his arms and held her. Her voice was muffled. "I want my sister, I want my sister."
He stroked her hair. "I know... I know, and you've hidden her away for all these years, haven't you? But you know now, you didn't hurt her, it wasn't you, Vebekka. It was not you."
She gave a sad smile, and asked for a glass of water. He went to a side table, and poured some iced water. "Your husband is very afraid for you... he wants to end the sessions."
She took out a cigarette and he lit it for her; she inhaled deeply. "Do you think this longing I have felt always... is it for Ruda?"
"Of course, she was part of you, she was your twin!"
She sat silently for a while, and then said, "I feel a terrible sense of loss."
"That is understandable, you have lost your safety net, your trunk, the one with all the chains, the one you were so afraid to open."
She stubbed out the cigarette. "What did they do to me?"
He crouched down in front of her. "We'll find out, we'll find it all out, my dear, and gradually you will understand. But it will be hard going."
She nodded. "I don't remember... I don't remember."
He smoothed her hair away from her brow — she felt hot. He stood up. Drink up, drink some water."
"I'm tired."
"You can sleep in here, no need to go back to the other room."
Franks tucked the blanket around her and waited as she lay with her eyes open. "Don't try and remember, just rest. We will take it stage by stage, year by year, until all the pieces are back in place. You have a lot to catch up on, your mama—"
"She wasn't my real mama, I know that."
He smiled at her. "I think you will repossess your past, I sincerely believe it, and there will be no more rages, no more violence... You locked Ruda away, but she wouldn't lie quiet. Now you will be able to give her peace."
"Peace," she repeated. Her eyes closed. Franks let himself out, quietly. He asked Maja to remain close by and look after Vebekka.