In part two of this episodic psychological thriller, Nicole Jeffords. convinced that healer, Victor Goodlove, who disappeared ten years earlier is buried under her studio, continues her search for him, contacting old patients all over Austin and dis...
Who knew what Maria's motives were getting involved with a playboy like Nicu Ceausescu. Surely she had heard about his womanizing, his rough behavior, his profligacy. Perhaps she was so thrilled to be summoned to the palace that, unlike her father, she didn't care. Perhaps she was truly attracted to the dictator's son. Perhaps she thought an involvement with him would further her career or bring an element of safety and security to her life. Or perhaps it was simpler than that: perhaps she was terrified of what would happen if she didn't comply.
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Nicu Ceausescu
Doina, who worked long hours, claimed she caught frequent glimpses of Maria at the palace. Once, walking down a hall with a pile of sheets, she heard a muffled scream coming from Nicu's room — not, she was careful to note, a scream of pleasure. Another time she saw Maria with a slap mark on her face. This was in a downstairs hallway, early in the morning. A driver had come to collect the actress, who wore big sunglasses and a scarf to hide the telltale swelling. Doina had wanted to yell: "Hey! Remember me!" recalling the long ago days she and Maria had been schoolmates, each in their uniform of navy blue skirt, white blouse, red tie, and now here they were, both in a dictator's palace for different reasons.
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Dad's Drop Off, Emilio Labrador, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
She wanted to help Maria, but there was nothing she could do. Besides, the actress had much more power than she did, though in those days power was fleeting and the only people who really possessed it were Ceausescu and his family. Ordinary citizens just waited, their lives tasting futile in their mouths. On breadlines, overcrowded buses, in dark rooms because the electricity had shut down, hungry and wanting, calling out Ceausescu's name as if they loved him in the frequent parades in his honor. I received dozens of emails from my guide, Ana, and in all of them that was the main theme: the stark horror of living in Ceausescu times.
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Nicolae Ceauşescu visiting Sibiu, Communist in a Cadillac parade — in Romania (1967) – Credit: File:IICCR G156 Ceausescu in Sibiu.jpg, Fototeca online a comunismului românesc, (12.01.17), ANIC, archival database, structural part, thematic subdivision, quota (e.g. ANIC, ISISP archival database, Nicolae Ceauşescu – Portraits, 8/1966)
After 1980, when Nicu moved to Sibiu where his father had appointed him governor, Doina didn't see much of Maria. She heard stories of wild parties, orgies, bacchanals in the provincial city, but she had no idea if Maria was among the participants — one of many girls who was raped, gangbanged, slapped around. There were all kinds of rumors and Doina, busy with her own worries, stopped listening to them until one day, when she was waxing the first lady's chin, Elena casually mentioned that her son might be having a baby with the actress Maria Mocanu.
