Großgesichtiges Kind / The Child With the Big Face

From the world of mental institutions

In a mental institution, a child ran along corridors and staircases, brushing past iron bars and balustrades. The building swallowed the sounds it made, just as it muffled the screams of the demented and the creaking of the ancient linoleum. Some places should be avoided by the child. Later, as a grown-up, she will be back in a clinic; this time as a patient, a cancer patient. She watches as the hearses pull up. "It is urgent that you leave the premises again", says the porter. He will deal with the issue of bicycles later.
Esther Dischereit's story describes the world of mental institutions; following the Nazi years; to be feared. And also to be feared was probably the radio thief, who had to watch over the child in the mental home. Even though the child loved this child-man. Years later, the woman knows all about it.

• A new story by the Erich Fried prize-winner, Esther Dischereit
• In the deep shadow of the Nazi years: growing up in the 1950s
• Mental home and cancer clinic: living behind the doors of an institute
  

Esther Dischereit, Vienna, Austria.