Says he should have seen it, should have known, should not have brought his family here. What is an obsession? he asks. What is a disease? What is a choice, and what is an affliction? He has a PhD. He’s a historian. He is an Ivy League man. All this time in Florence, searching for the place where chaos began—the flood. All this time, and it was right there, climbing the steep hills beside him. Mrs. C. says, “Shhhh, let’s be strong.” Mrs. C. says, “One day at a time. The science is progressing. Look at how well she is doing. Look at all we can do for her now. Listen to Katherine.” “She’s in the best hands.” “She is young.“ Mrs. C. is there every day, in the house where Katherine lives and Nadia has been staying since the middle part of October, when she could no longer return to the nests she loves and the nests that torment her. Obsessive thoughts. Disinhibited behaviors. Delusions. Loss of expressive talk. I keep trying to get the words right. To see past the labels.
