Tracey at the Museum of

Tracey at the Museum of :

Tracey sighed at the thought of another school trip with the unruly boys and girls of the Payne Academy, a private school that always reminded her of St Trinians. On this particular school journey, she and Mr. Chambers were in “charge” of the worst group of the lot, the 18 year old kids. The previous ones had been disasters and, as usual, ended up in severe pain and humiliation for her. She hoped that for once this latest school journey to Spain would be less of an ordeal than the ones before had been but as usual, she was dead wrong about that!

As she stepped off the tour coach Tracey looked at the massive building in front of them with its stone walls, iron gates and barred metal windows. What the hell IS this place?

Mr. Chambers led the group inside the place. With the signs all being in Spanish on the outside of the building Tracey didn’t know what it all meant but when she got in she saw that there were a few signs in English. A young, dark-haired and typically Spanish looking girl stepped forward.

“Senor Chambers? I am Maria Ramirez, Senor Gonzales’ assistant. We have been expecting you. Senor Gonzales is happy to meet up with you again.”

The 13 students all milled around looking a bit bored. Tracey was at the rear of the group and Mr. Chambers at the front. Then he called her forward.

“The curator of this museum is a good friend of mine,” he told her. “I’d like to wait here until he arrives. Please go and sign us all in.”

Tracey walked across to the counter and Maria produced a form for her to sign. It was all in Spanish so she didn’t understand a word of it but the girl assured her with a smile that it was only a formality. Signing it, Tracey rejoined the rest of the party. Then a dark-haired, dark-skinned man of medium height and build came out to greet them.

“Ah, Senor Chambers, it is a pleasure to see you again!” the man said. “I believe we last met in Nuremberg.”

“Hola, Senor Gonzales. Yes, that was our last meeting.”

Then the Spaniard turned to the group and smiled.

“Pleased to be welcome to our little Museum of ,” he said.

At once Tracey’s heart froze in fear at the title of the place. Her nervousness got even worse when she saw him staring straight at her and smiling.

“So hola, ladies and gentlemen. This is the Museum of the Inquisition, I am sure that many of you have heard of the countless cruelties committed during that dark period in our history. And why you may ask do we have a museum dedicated to such atrocities? Because we do not wish people to forget the horrific past. That is why we have created this museum to remind people of how things once wore in my country.”

In spite of the heat of the day, Tracey shivered with fear. God, in a place like this so many things could go wrong! And I can really feel the sense of evil in this museum.

“Please to follow,” said Mr. Gonzales, “We will begin with a short film describing the history of the Spanish Inquisition.”

Tracey gazed at Mr. Chambers and whispered softly in his ear.

“Do I have to go and watch this stuff? Do I even have to go on the tour of this place? It’s horrible!”

Mr Chambers looked at her and laughed.

“Tracey, what’s wrong with you? This is a museum! And Senor Gonzales is a very good friend of mine. Do you really want our students to think you’re some sort of a hysterical wimp? Now pull yourself together and get on with the tour!”

Tracey sighed. She knew it wasn’t likely he’d have agreed but at least she’d told him how she felt. Now there was nothing she could do but hope that this time the museum really wouldn’t turn out as bad as the other trips she’d been on.

“Well, ladies and gentlemen,” said Mr. Gonzales. “After the film has finished we will embark on a tour of the museum itself.”

The group settled down in the seats and watched the film. It began by talking about how the fear of witches and heretics had swept across Europe and how the Catholic Church had decided to try and stamp it out using violent means. Then he stopped the film for a moment to address them briefly.

“Although the Inquisition did not begin in Spain,” Mr. Gonzales explained, “it was in my country that it rose to the height of its power. We will now resume the film. This shows a woman being burnt alive at the stake. As you will observe, she is completely naked. She would certainly have been tortured severely before her final execution. Probably came as a blessed release to her.”

Tracey felt nauseated but the group of teenagers with her seemed to be fascinated by the poor girl’s ordeal. What a sick bunch they are, she thought angrily.

Then they all watched the woman burning alive at the stake, her screams of agony clear in spite of the fact that it was obviously a dummy that was being burnt. Or was it? Tracey felt more and more uneasy.

“Here is another woman being hung,” said the smiling Mr. Gonzales. “As you see, she is also naked.”

Once more the students loved seeing the woman or dummy – Tracey wasn’t entirely sure which any more – being hung naked. As the woman danced obscenely in her throes, displaying her naked female charms to all and sundry, once again Tracey felt like throwing up. Why the hell had Mr. Chambers brought them to a place like this?

“And here is another of the cruellest methods of execution,” he told them. “This woman is being broken at the wheel. She is naked of course and her arms and legs are splayed out in an obscene public display of her nudity. The executioner breaks parts of her bones and eventually every part of her body is broken. She is then left naked on the wheel to die.”

Tracey wanted to throw up but she didn’t dare. It was almost a relief when the film ended at last.

"I hope you have found my little film instructive,” he said. “Of course as well as the Inquisition also liked to inflict pain. Please to follow me into the next part of the museum where I will show you the various instruments of used upon people held prisoner by the Inquisition. I hope that you will find them instructive, interesting and perhaps even enjoyable."

Tracey controlled an almost irresistible wish to shudder when he said that. Enjoyable? ? Looking around at her students, she saw at once that all of THEM seemed to find it fascinating and enjoyable. She also saw that Senor Gonzales had noticed their reaction. With a slight smile, he continued.