The chain of events leading to the men’s release remains shrouded in mystery. “The Mali government and army played a key role in freeing the prisoners, and we expect to receive a briefing on the operational details soon,” Tuomioja said. Responsibility for the investigation of Holmlund’s abduction now shifts from the Foreign Ministry to the National Bureau of Investigation.
“Being held hostage is very stressful psychologically, especially if the abductee witnesses a murder,” says crisis psychologist Merja Matinmäki. “But through the help of therapy and rehabilitation, most people can recover from the trauma. Often, returning home to family and friends is the only thing that can bring enough of a feeling of security to make it possible to react and work through the feelings caused by imprisonment.”
Adapting to normal life can still be difficult, though, Matinmäki explains. “A victim returning to Finnish society may feel like an outsider.”
TURQUOISE: WHEN NOTHING IS WHAT IT ONCE LOOKED LIKE
Au revoir, Nina!
The metro train is covered in a transparent turquoise advertising wrap. H&M and Versace, the fall collection. The turquoise wrap has a rosette of leopard spots and features leather and studs, silk and bright prints, high heels, and large jewelry. Ten seconds remain until Nina will hit her head on the side of the train hurtling out of the tunnel.
Nina walks down the escalator as fast as she can with her large belly. Aboveground it’s the morning rush; the tunnel has its own inexorable time, but even so, progress is too slow. The moving staircase travels at half a meter per second, one meter in two, one and a half in three, and Nina has to make the next train, which clatters along the red line toward Saint-Joseph Hospital.
Nina pulls her mobile phone out of her jacket pocket to call her family doctor: Stéphanie has to help. Stéphanie has to assure her she’ll arrive at the hospital in time. Stéphanie has to say that it all might be . . .
The phone slips out of Nina’s hand, and she kicks it toward the metro platform with the tip of her shoe; it launches down, bouncing twice on the escalator. Nina steps onto the platform but instead of bending to pick up the phone off the ground, she continues running. The metro rumbles in the tunnel. Nina runs as if she means to jump straight into the metro, to pass through the wall into the car. Someone yells, “Faites attention!” but Nina doesn’t stop. One second, two, three. She jumps, trips, tumbles, hits her head against the turquoise metro car coming out of the tunnel, and is tossed aside from the force of the blow.
Shouts erupt on the platform. Dozens of hands reach for mobile phones and call the emergency number at once. Only one picture is taken. The man closest to Nina kneels, helplessly checks her pulse, and then even more helplessly puts his red scarf under Nina’s head. Madame, can you hear me? Madame does not. Madam, CAN YOU HEAR ME? No, madam still cannot hear. Madam has fallen into a deep state of unconsciousness. Her heart is beating, her pulse is palpable, and she’s breathing. And the babies in her womb?
It’s clear that Nina is in need of haste. If not for herself then for the twins.
Aboveground there’s a traffic jam. The ambulance weaves past the queues of automobiles, through red lights, but the journey is slow. By the time Nina is finally in the ambulance, the situation has changed. Nina’s breathing has slowed. The paramedic applies a neck brace and laryngeal mask; ventilation begins. Once Nina’s breathing is taken care of, the other paramedic opens her eyelids and shines a light in. No reaction in her pupils.
Is this how it happened?
What about the children?
The metro didn’t hit them!
Nina, you’re in the hands of professionals. Surely they can do something!
And can we help you somehow?
What would you like us to do?
The ambulance sets off for the hospital with sirens blaring. Shlomith, Polina, Wlibgis, Ulrike, and Rosa Imaculada are grouped around Nina. It’s crowded. Rosa and Polina are standing in the same place as the two paramedics, who are attempting to revive Nina as she lies on the stretcher. The left half of Rosa’s body is inside the right half of one of the paramedics, and Polina’s bare belly is submerged in the back of the paramedic leaning over Nina.
We aren’t bothering them, are we?
They don’t seem to notice anything.
We don’t exist for them.
Well, is now when it happens?
It happens now. It happens in a different way than these things sometimes happen. Later the doctor spells out the situation to Nina’s tearful relatives. Why saving her wasn’t possible even though she wasn’t killed instantly. If the blow had severed the connections between the cranium and the cervical spine, tearing the spinal cord, nothing could have been done even in theory. Or if the blow had damaged the brain stem, stopping her lungs and heart, there would be no room for speculation now. The doctor is patient. Even though Jean-Philippe makes insinuations about malpractice, the doctor remains calm, showing pictures and explaining. Nina’s life ends due to serious problems in her brain stem, but, as so often in life, as a result of a series of unfortunate coincidences. The contact with the metro train and Nina’s impact on the platform together create an intracranial subarachnoid hemorrhage. Blood begins to drip onto the surface of her brain, then into the fourth cerebral ventricle through the cerebral aqueduct—there really is an area of the brain called an aqueduct—through tiny holes located in the cavity wall. From the fourth ventricle the blood finds its way into the other three cerebral ventricles, as a result of which the circulation of the cerebrospinal fluid, the liquor cerebrospinalis produced by the ventricles, is impeded. Because of the excess blood, the cerebrospinal fluid becomes
