Monday, May 4, 1970
-- as told by the character Val
in the novel
The Women's Room
by
Marilyn French
"People, people everywhere just wanted to live. What was it they wanted, the ones who started wars? It was something she felt she would never understand.
"Still humming, she sautéed the vegetables, covering the pan, poured herself a glass of wine, and crossed the kitchen and switched on the TV set for the evening news. It was too early, some old Western was on; she ignored it, making her sauc, setting the table for one, drinking her wine. The sauce was simmering, it smelled delicious, she picked up the pot to smell it -- she always did that -- and then somebody was saying it, she heard him say it, it couldn't be but he was saying it was, she turned around to look at the screen, it couldn't be, but there it was, there were pictures, it was happening right before her eyes, she couldn't believe it . . . and she heard this screaming, it was ungodly, it was coming from the back of her head, she could hear it, it was a woman screaming in agony, and when she looked, there was blood all over her kitchen floor.
"We didn't know then that it was only a beginning. It was the time when the nightmare broke out into public vision, when you could really see, put your finger on those subtle and tenuous currents that a lot of people . . . had been feeling but couldn't see clear enough to shoot. . . .
"Val got her wits back eventually. She stopped screaming, although she was still sobbing, tears were streaming down her face as she got down on her hands and knees to wipe up the spaghetti sauce she'd spilled all over the floor, and to stay there, crouched down, crying in her hands, unable to believe it, unable to disbelieve it, crying out, 'We're killing our children? We're killing our children!'" (591 - 92)
on May 15, 1970.
or so it would seem . . .
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