Veronika Decides to Die. Пауло Коэльо

in a grave, technical tone of voice. ‘It’s used by diabetics to combat high blood glucose. However, when the dose is much larger than normal, the consequent drop in blood glucose provokes a state of coma.’

      He tapped the needle lightly, to get rid of any air, and then stuck it in a vein in Zedka’s right foot.

      ‘That’s what’s going to happen now. She’s going to enter a state of induced coma. Don’t be frightened if her eyes go glazed, and don’t expect her to recognise you when she’s under the effects of the medication.’

      ‘That’s awful, inhuman. People struggle to get out of a coma not to go into one.’

      ‘People struggle to live, not to commit suicide,’ replied the nurse, but Veronika ignored the remark. ‘And a state of coma allows the organism to rest; its functions are all drastically reduced and any existing tension disappears.’

      While he was talking, he was injecting the liquid, and Zedka’s eyes were growing dull.

      ‘Don’t worry,’ Veronika was saying to her. ‘You’re absolutely normal, the story you told me about the king…’

      ‘Don’t waste your time. She can’t hear you any more.’

      The woman on the bed, who a few minutes before had seemed so lucid and full of life, now had her eyes fixed on some point in the distance, and there was liquid bubbling from one corner of her mouth.

      ‘What did you do?’ she shouted at the nurse.

      ‘Just my job.’

      Veronika started calling to Zedka, shouting, threatening that she would go to the police, the press, the human rights organisations.

      ‘Calm down. You may be in a mental hospital, but you still have to abide by certain rules.’

      She saw that the man was utterly serious and she was afraid. But since she had nothing to lose, she went on shouting.

      From where she was, Zedka could see the ward and the beds, all empty except for one, to which her body was strapped, and beside which a girl was standing, staring in horror. The girl didn’t know that the person in the bed was still alive with all her biological functions working perfectly, but that her soul was flying, almost touching the ceiling, experiencing a sense of profound peace.

      Zedka was making an astral journey, something that had been a surprise during her first experience of insulin shock. She hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, she was only there to be cured of depression and, as soon as she was in a fit state, she hoped to leave that place for ever. If she started telling them that she had left her body, they would think she was madder than when she had entered Villete. However, as soon as she had returned to her body, she began reading up on both subjects: insulin shock and that strange feeling of floating in space.