Did you know we’re not even halfway through this book yet? Entry 30 let’s go.
August 11
This entry from Mina opens at 3am. She passed out as soon as she closed her diary the night before and woke with a start in the wee hours to find Lucy isn’t in her bed, or in the room. Mina hauls her clothes on to chase after and then thinks that whatever clothes are missing from Lucy’s wardrobe might reveal her sleepy logic. If it were me, she’d be lucky if I put any clothes on at all… Oh but as it turns out Lucy’s just in her nightdress, so she didn’t put anything on either. Mina takes this as a sign that Lucy isn’t going far, but finds the door to the hall unlocked, meaning Mina’s full of shit and Lucy did indeed go outside. Mina goes after, feeling properly afraid.
Then as the cloud passed I could see the ruins of the abbey coming into view; and as the edge of a narrow band of light as sharp as a sword-cut moved along, the church and the churchyard became gradually visible.
I just think this writing is lovely!
Mina spots Lucy in their favourite seat in the graveyard, and thinks she sees a dark figure behind her. Mina runs to her and I feel this line so bad:
The time and distance seemed endless, and my knees trembled and my breath came laboured as I toiled up the endless steps to the abbey. I must have gone fast, and yet it seemed to me as if my feet were weighted with lead, and as though every joint in my body were rusty.
I try to get fit you guys but I never feel fit enough to run as much as I need to when I need to. I guess that’s life when you’re not a kid.
As Mina approaches she sees a shadow over Lucy for sure, and runs toward her screaming Lucy’s name. Something looks up with a “white face and red, gleaming eyes.” There’s a moment on approach where Mina’s view of Lucy is broken, and when she reaches her, the figure is gone.
Mina covers Lucy up with a shawl and thinks she pricks her neck with the pin. She also gives Lucy her shoes, which is cute. After trying to ease her into wakefulness, Mina gets desperate and shakes her awake.
Lucy always wakes prettily, and even at such a time, when her body must have been chilled with cold, and her mind somewhat appalled at waking unclad in a churchyard at night, she did not lose her grace.
I bet Lucy never ugly-cries. I bet she’s never had a booger, or as a child barfed at the top of a staircase so it tumbles all the way down. I bet she’s never laughed at a fart. All the same, I do appreciate that if we’re going to have the most perfect woman alive walking around, she’s not the POV character, but we’ll see how Mina looks through Jonathan’s eyes one of these days.
On the way back, Mina has to walk barefoot on gravel and Lucy tries to give her shoes back, but she won’t take them. Instead, she puts mud on her feet so no one they potentially encounter notices she has no shoes on. I have to note this because it sounds so bizarre.
They do pass one drunk and duck into an alley to be invisible. I wrote a porny fanfic like this once! Very romantic. How pretty are Lucy’s cheeks now, Mina? What do her lips look like in the glow of the moon?
When they get in, Mina tucks Lucy in to bed and Lucy makes her promise not to tell anyone about their sleepwalking adventure that night. Mina reluctantly agrees. She locks the bedroom door and wears the key on her wrist to prevent any more adventures.
Cut to noon where Lucy seems to be in better health than ever except for the pair of bloody pricks on her neck. It sure is a mystery how Mina managed to do that with a single shawl pin! She does note that the wounds are very tiny, too small to scar.
Mina updates her journal again in the evening. They had a lovely day but she mentions Jonathan suddenly and how perfect it would be if only he were here, as if she forgot about him until now and only has eyes for Lucy. Today instead of wondering about where he is she tells herself to have patience and moves on with her life. That’s the spirit, Mina!
August 12
Apparently Lucy got up a few times in the night to be stymied by the locked door, but she awoke radiant and beautiful anyway.
All her old gaiety of manner seemed to have come back, and she came and snuggled in beside me and told me all about Arthur. I told her how anxious I was about Jonathan, and then she tried to comfort me. Well, she succeeded somewhat, for, though sympathy can’t alter facts, it can help to make them more bearable.
Just gals being pals.
This is like that all-too-real cliché where the lesbian in love with her best friend makes up some imaginary dude to have a crush on. Obviously it has nothing to actually do with him and everything to do with being comforted in bed by your cute bestie who you’re obsessed with.
And now a PLOT TWIST: a letter addressed from a nun on August 12th to Mina from Budapest, the Hospital of St. Joseph and Ste. Mary. She writes that Jonathan is alive and has been there for six weeks with a “brain fever,” which makes me think encephalitis but who knows.
Oh wow look, “brain fever” has a wikipedia page. It does mention that it could be encephalitis or meningitis, but generally is accepted in Victorian terms as a nervous breakdown. The latter raises less questions than the former.
The nun, Sister Agatha, says that Jonathan’s work is done and he’ll be staying in the sanatorium for a little longer. He writes that he doesn’t have enough money to pay them, which I think means “Mina, please send money.”
I wonder how long it will take for this letter to get to Mina?
Sister Agatha goes on in the postscript after Jonathan falls asleep. Apparently he came in to Budapest on the train from Cluj-Napoca, and was in hysterics demanding to get home, so they gave him the most westward ticket they could, landing him in Budapest and out of Romania. Until he got his bearings they couldn’t write because he wouldn’t tell them anything and they couldn’t read his notes. Rest assured he’s very popular at the asylum.
Sister Agatha warns that Mina be very careful with Jonathan as any trigger might cause his condition to deteriorate into fresh hysterics, thanks to his trauma.
Just as Mina was starting to forget about Jonathan too. SIGH
I wrote this in my back yard and a cute fluffy grey and white tuxedo cat came to visit me while I was prepping this to post. Yay!
