Perpetual Helix

Working Title: Perpetual Helix

Author: Gemma Dupon

Category: Memoir

Total Words: 100,800

Brief Synopsis:

My proposal,

This is my 100,800 words Memoir, it is set in Europe and takes place throughout the 1970’s, where the Belgian protagonist, Pierre Dupont, desperately tries to impress both his parents and his English wife, Sandra. With no job prospects on the horizon and after months of planning and rumination, he decides to rob a bank on Sandra’s 21st birthday, acting as the designated getaway driver. The first chapter portrays the tension between Pierre, Sandra and his accomplices on the day of the robbery.

He began by ensuring Sandra that robbing a bank would be the only way to escape the fast decline of Vervier. As his accomplices arrived at his home on the fateful day, he reminded them that the robbery would make them all very rich. To him it would also allow him to eradicate the memory of his poverty-stricken background and the stench of his horrifying childhood, which had haunted him his entire life.

Shortly after the robbery, whilst the gang were celebrating in a bar, Pierre became involved in a dispute with the father of his mistress. He beat the man near to death after the father of the mistress had denied Pierre her hand in marriage. The father of the mistress based his reply on the grounds that Pierre was already married and was a less than favourable suitor. He fled the scene and returned home to Sandra and his two young children, Peter and Gemma, where he continued to brag about his role in the robbery. But the cheerful atmosphere soon turned sour due to the residual angst of the night’s proceedings, and he decided to take his anger out on his wife and his three-year-old daughter, Gemma. That very night Pierre was arrested, not for the robbery but for the latter reasons of his mistress’ father affair.

Sandra was only seven months pregnant and the news sent Sandra into shock. She went into labour and was inevitably hospitalised later that evening. With medical intervention, the birth of her newborn daughter, who was named Julie, was successfully postpone until in early November, 1970. However, in the meantime, Peter and Gemma were placed into a care home, which Gemma had already frequented on numerous occasions.

Once Pierre was released from prison, the whole family were reunited and eloped to France. They began to live in Marseille. There, through some dubious and questionable referrals, Pierre was hired as a croupier in the best French Casino in Marseille, where he was introduced to a notorious mafia boss commonly referred to, as the ‘Godfather’.

Through Pierre’s endeavours in this new world of drugs, he quickly rose to the top ranks of the gangs’ firm. However, his alcoholism and his raging temper interfered with his thriving success as a drug dealing croupier and within the firm itself. Worst of all, he was rendered powerless when he found out that Sandra was having an affair with the Godfather. Whilst he was deciding what to do, the Godfather was already planning to elope with Sandra, and worse still, to double cross Pierre on the most important drug deal in the firms’ history, set to put them amongst the wealthiest gangsters in the world.

On the morning of the deal, Pierre and two other gang members were sent to do a job by the Godfather. By the time they arrived at the rendezvous, all three men involved had found the police lurking by, awaiting for the three men’s arrival. Realising the Godfather had set them up, the three men fled to the nearest café and made desperate phone calls to their families, to be ready to leave at a moments notice. Now they were wanted men, they spared no time and split the money they had received from the deals that morning and the two men fled the scene. Pierre, having no family to return to, sat drinking by himself, seething at the extent of the Godfathers betrayal. Amidst his frustration, he overhears his daughter Gemma laughing in the distance. He looks across the street to see the Godfather himself, laughing with Sandra and his three children and with their suitcases neatly tucked by their feet.

Without a moments hesitation, his adrenaline soared and he had traversed to the middle of the road. Ready and eager to avenge himself. Without thinking how, he leapt to his chance and clinched to instant incensed motion. He grabbed the breast of the godfathers shirt, wrangled it within his fists, and was stared into the seed of his rage. He wrenched him into the street and beat him with unrelenting force until all resistance subsisted. The Godfather’s the dead weight fell immobile onto the pavement. Pierre left his battered and bloody body laid there. He rounded up his family and fled the scene, having successfully avenged his betrayal. 

Although Pierre, Sandra and their three children managed to evade immediate consequences by fleeing to Saint Tropez in the Côte d’Azur, the sheer breadth of the Godfather’s authority was too great to attempt to hide in this territory, and word eventually reached Pierre that the firm had found him. Pierre was soon apprehended and ordered to man the doors of a wedding for a famous celebrity, where he was instructed to sell drugs to the hundreds of guests in order to pay back the Godfather for the money he stole. During that time, Sandra and her children where held captive at gunpoint on the Godfather’s private beach. There, depending on the results of Pierre’s work, the Godfather’s men awaited orders on whether to let the four go free, or to execute them all, right there on the beach.

Sandra and her three children were eventually released and the whole family attempted to evade the Godfathers influence by moving to Ventimiglia, Italy. Having spent his money, they struggled in poverty as they did back in the days when they were living in Vervier. Soon, in the early months of 1972, desperate and destitute, he runs off to Switzerland and Germany to try to earn some money, but there was nothing for him there, and he reluctantly returned to Belgium. Entering past the Belgian border, Pierre was finally arrested for the robbery in 1970. During his incarceration, Sandra and the three children were taken to reside and work in the Chateaux of the Baroness Del Marmol in Liege, where Sandra gave birth to another daughter, named Roseanne.

Due to good behaviour, Pierre was release early, and in 1973, Pierre reunited with his family at the chateaux. No matter how much mentoring he received from the Baroness, he seldom held onto a job for long. His bad temper soared to a catastrophic level. In 1974, they moved to a house literally down the hill from the chateaux.

Unfortunately, his life at home became as unbearable as his life at work. By then Gemma was six years old and still wetting the bed. Pierre could not, and would not have undisciplined children, and hence he found cruel ways to stop Gemma from wetting the bed, but the fear of punishment was only to make it worse. Until that moment Sandra,  had never abused Gemma before. In fact, Sandra had always shown undying love towards Gemma but the brutal times were beginning to take its toll on Sandra and she was made to punish Gemma in ways that were unimaginable.

By 1975, they had moved again to a derelict farm in Gomzé-Andoumont. This was where Pierre began to sexually abuse Gemma. During their time there, he formed an underground paedophile ring to which she was made centre piece. The results of which caused one of his alcoholic friends to commit suicide. Sandra then began crumbling under the pressure of Pierre’s abuse and started to abuse Gemma without his instigation. The decision to act out of his authority rendered Sandra a beating to which she would be left unrecognisable. Her facial features sunk deep beneath a mask of dark purple and blue. The day her children were allowed to visit her at hospital, the police raided the hospital and all of her children were seized and sent to a care home.

Gemma began to feel very disillusioned as her parents reconciled their marriage and started a new life once again. In 1976, the family were reunited and given a council house in Marchin, right in the heart of Huy’s borough. Unfortunately, Pierre still could not manage to abstain from drinking and his raging temper soon escalated, to the point where he beat Sandra and Gemma regularly, and ever more ferociously.

By 1977, his alcoholism and his temper were now uncontrollable, and his actions lead to Sandra almost losing her life. She was inevitably hospitalised with twisted intestines after a particularly brutal beating and was put on life support for a number of days before she regained consciousness. The shock of almost losing Sandra depressed him deeply and forced him to re-evaluate his life and seek help. After Sandra was transferred to a better hospital, it was discovered that Pierre was the perpetrator of her injuries. The children were once again sent into the care of foster families. Separated, but safe.

Pierre once again began abstaining from drinking and he even opened his own business. Unfortunately, Pierre’s excitement lead him to over spend and he was soon arrested for bankruptcy. Sandra was left to pick up the pieces whilst Pierre spent time in custody. She was allowed to stay and live in the bungalow which Pierre had rented for her when he began his business, but Sandra began to feel unstable and was unable to cope with the stresses of wondering if Pierre was to be convicted and sent back to prison. 

In June 1978, Pierre was given bail and swiftly sold everything and purchased flight tickets to emigrate to Australia. Packed and ready to leave Belgium, a taxi was hired to take them to the airport, but the driver soon recognised him as the wanted man mentioned man, named on the police CB radio. The radio interceptions stated that the police were patrolling the borders and monitoring airlines in an attempt to bring him back into custody. Pierre struck a deal with the driver, offering him a substantial amount of money to drive them to Calais, where the whole family was able to board a ferry to England.

Settling in Derbyshire and residing at Sandra’s parents, Pierre, Sandra and the four children, all slept together in the front bedroom of the house. This happened to become Gemma’s salvation. By now, Pierre had lost all inhibition and began to sexually abuse Gemma in the same room as to where Sandra slept.

One night, Sandra heard Gemma cry and became suspicious. Yet!! Pierre was not doing anything to rectify the situation. Finally, Sandra caught Pierre in the act, sexually abusing Gemma. Pierre, angry at being caught red handed, attempted to kill Gemma. The grandfather was alerted by the commotion and ran into the room and attempted to subdue Gemma from Pierre’s evil grasp. The fight ensued, but Gemma’s Grandma alerted the police. Within the next half an hour, Pierre Dupont was finally arrested.

This is the first Memoir and the events that proceeds Piere Dupont, Pierre’s arrest is written in the second Memoir. Unfortunately due to my latest news, I am unable to finish it but there is enough details for my fiancee to finish it. Books which, I have only in note form are to be written and finished by Tom. These books are detailed below such as ‘La Bosco’, ‘La France’ and the ‘Undergraduate Nurse’ . The hard task is the ‘Undergraduate Nurse’ as for that book, he can only write what he reads from my notes as those days are prior to our relationship. Although I will not be writing them, well, we will see how things go. But I can only take one step at a time. Tom has also agreed to finish my second memoir “Where Was the Help?“, which is technically finished but it needs a good work out and definitely editing. This second memoir was originally the first. However, when I began the venture back in 2016, I began the autobiography in 1978 to 1985 and kept reverting back to some earlier events. It sucked. So, I revamped it and began Perpetual Helix, which began in 1970 to 1978 and ” Where Was the Help?” begins in 1978 leading to 1985.

Then came my diagnosis of my terminal illness. This is when I revived, I knew I had to get my memoir published for the sake of my partner and my children. Thanks to Lipi Gupta who is now professionally editing Perpetual Helix as we speak and thanks to a dear friend of ours, Nikky Bottomley, a recent art graduate, now teaching at Sheffield college, who will design the book cover so that in January, Lipi Gupta’s publishing team, can format it and upload it to Amazon KDP, ready for publication and ready for them to market it. I am for ever and eternally grateful for Lipi and her team and for Nikky to grant me this last dying wish. Thank you all so very very much.

This is my Dying Legacy for my children, Tom and my mother. I will not reap the benefits but they will, so in effect I will reap the benefits and this has given me inner peace to know that they will have something of me after all. Then, there is my last final book to which I will write to the end of my days. It is my diary of my terminal cancer surviving days, ‘My Dying Legacy‘.

 

*****

La Bosco; This book begins at Gleadless valley when my PSTD resurfaced and I was unable to focus on working and keeping my job. This is when I began my first memoir. Rewriting it over and over. I was no born artist. I didn’t know what I was doing. Eventually, I decided on a memoir not an autobiography but not until we lived in France, that took a long time to create a descent version. In the mean time, Tom was trying his best to find new prospects but we both failed and we were evicted but not without a fight. We sold my car, went To Sicily and stayed there for three months. one months was spent in a holiday flat, it was amazing. Then we found a way to earn some money and went to voluntary work for two people. One in Palermo and one in Syracuse. The strain took its toll. We sought refuge in hiding places, such as derelict train stations, abandoned factories and eventually some woods behind an air-force field. And how from there we made our way to France to be helped to attend my brother’s wedding in Belgium.

La France; From the moment of arriving in France, something told us this would be our last memorable place to be. Good or bad, our life took a different turn but did we mentally prepare ourselves for the South West French life. I don’t think we did but it was fun trying in a way. I would do it again. You have to give things a go, not doing so could protect you and keep you safe but trying means you have some gum in you. It means you are willing to fall down and pick yourselves up. Some people think we were mad and running away but I think they are just naive. It wasn’t about running away, it was about trying new things, good or bad. It was about living life to the full. Yet, those who thought we were running away, what have they got, oh yeah, their laugh.

The ignorant;

“Eh, Friend, I did some exciting things in my life, you know. I laughed at that old woman travelling wanting to know how everyone else also lived.”

Friend;” Did she like it”

Ignorant; “No”

Friend; But she got to know she didn’t like it. Wow. She actually did it?

But 

The Undergraduate Nurse, he wasn’t present for, but I will leave him all the notes of those three years of an undergraduate nurse training as a single mother of six. How as a mature student I underwent the transition of entering into the world of nursing. After enduring the loss of my sixth child whilst being pregnant with my seventh child, I underwent a transition. Trying to avoid medical drugs to ease my suffering, I went into holistic therapy. The holistic therapy led me into entering the service of general nursing. I was told I would never achieve more than 3-4 ‘O’Levels but yet, I went on to graduate. Only just, I only got a third but I graduated. Not only did I graduate but I graduated at the same time as my eldest daughter also graduated. How about that then,eh. What an achievement for us all. It was amazing. 

 

Already this website has covered the basics of 

What Is Emotional/Psychological/Mental Abuse?

• Narcissist Abuse

• Symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder

• What Is Post Traumatic Abuse?
• Anorexia
• Child Suicidal Attempts
• What Is Anxiety Disorder?
• What Is Clinical Depression?
• What Is A Nervous Breakdown?

 

Thank you for reading, please leave a comment, I would be glad to hear from you.