This is Eva’s contribution about the cinema published in the magazine Delirio that she has translated into English. The script about toxics and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is entitled “Rear Window” and it’s a tribute to the great filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. The photos, as usual, are made by David Palma.

Eva recommends this number of the magazine Delirio dedicated to the cinema because you will find amazing photographs and illustrations.

Rear Window

By Eva Caballé

The room is almost empty; nothing but a bed and an old bedside table without any decor or curtain, all in light colors. It seems calm and quiet. The woman sits on the edge of the bed in front of the window, looking at the sunlight, which is orange because of the sunset. She has a quick look out the window and then observes more carefully, stretching her neck as if she is looking for something. She turns and talks to the young woman who has just entered the room with an ironic and concerned smile.

Woman: Don’t you see how everybody is disappearing? It is no coincidence! They started to spray the park, day after day, while children were playing, and parents and grandparents sat in the sun chatting while watching them.

The young woman puts her hand to her waist with a tired look and responds, gesturing with her other hand, while she snorts, implying that she is tired of talking always about the same thing.

Young woman: You only see conspiracies; for you all is very simple. How can you be so sure if you hardly leave home? When you live through your window! Instead of spending hours writing pamphlets that I’m sure nobody reads, and taking pictures, shouldn’t you focus on your next book?

The woman’s expression becomes serious and she turns angry replying with some indignation.

Woman: But it’s obvious! It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes! The dog of the first floor neighbors died a few days after the first fumigation. They say that he was intoxicated by something that he ate… A few days ago an ambulance took the old woman who lives upstairs in the middle of the night and she is still hospitalized, when in the 40 years I have lived here I had never seen her having a cold! And what about the children on the fourth floor? (She takes a break to breathe because she speaks so fast that she is even short of breath.) Every day I see them with their bronchodilators and every other minute in the ER! Their neighbor has cancer and since she’s having chemotherapy she can no longer tolerate perfumes and now she has to wear a mask when she walks along the street. (Now almost shouting.) They say that she has Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and doctors don’t pay attention to her!

The woman makes faces parodying the young woman’s lecture that she already expects and knows by heart.

Young woman: You are a bit alarmist! There are only a few people who suffer from MCS; there is no need to worry. Today almost everyone has allergies or asthma. Authorities warn us that one out of every four people will have cancer in their lifetime. (Goes back and speaks from the doorway leaning on the door frame.) This is the modern life. We all have to die of something!

The woman turns and answers indignant from the bed.

Woman: And does it seem normal to you? Really? And when this affects you, will you still think the same?

The young woman finally leaves the room and her voice is heard from the hallway with a tone between weary and sarcastic.

Young woman: Well, see you next week. Do not keep on spying on your neighbors because you will end up crazy. You should amuse yourself and don’t fantasize anymore.

The woman answers raising her voice while the young woman closes the front door and leaves the house.

Woman: Don’t worry, my attitude has no solution. (And finishes angrily talking to herself.) And neither does your stupidity.

The woman is still staring out the window with indignation and with a worried face and thinks aloud.

Woman: Does anyone realize? I see everything so clearly that it scares me. Makes me want to open the window and shout it from the rooftops, but will anyone hear me? Why don’t they listen even when you alert them? (With a sarcastic tone.) Having no time and the fast pace of life sounds like cheap excuse to me. (She stands up and gets closer to the window.) It’s simple. We’ve become worse than donkeys, because it is not needed to put blinders on us to not look beyond the established road. We no longer have the instinct to do it! We are afraid of what we might see, lest we have to react. (The sun has set and she begins to close the blind.) It must be that I have no fear of looking or I have nothing to lose. It must be that my window is different…

Author: Eva Caballé, No Fun Blog, February 2011

Original article: LA VENTANA INDISCRETA, artículo sobre tóxicos y Sensibilidad Química Múltiple publicado en la revista DELIRIO

German Version at CSN Blog: Umweltkrankheiten: Hinschauen oder wegsehen?

More articles written by Eva Caballé:

• Naked Truth about MCS
  
• Metamorphosis insinde Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
• Dreams that kill
• MANIFESTO – We know they are lying to us
• Without Mask

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 09th, 2011 and is filed under Chemical Exposure, Chemical Sensitivity, MCS, Environmental Illnesses. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.