“No, no … nothing…” He bumbled for the words, and Eve sniggered.
“I’m just kidding around. What do you want to try? You’re fun, Dr. Mitch. I like you. Really. So…” She clapped her hands. “Let’s have some fun.” Her eyes gleamed wickedly. She leaned forward in her chair, and Mitch got that cat-playing-with-a-cornered-mouse vibe. “What is it you want?”
Again, Adam’s words came to Mitch.
Just talk to me …
“I’d like to speak to Ruby if I may. Is that possible, Eve?”
Eve did not look eager to accommodate.
“Why Ruby?” she asked, sounding confused.
Mitch heard a subtext in her question: Do you like her better?
He knew not to treat any alternate identity as more “real” or important than any other. He had to make Eve believe that Ruby was significant in Penny’s psyche, but no more so than anyone else.
“I think she’s an interesting person, from what I’ve read of her,” he said. “But she’s so hard to reach, and I was hoping you could help me. Honestly, it can’t happen without you.”
More subtext to Eve: You are in control here.
Eve went silent for a time.
“You think it could help me? Really help?”
Mitch heard: I’m open to it.
“I do.”
“I’m coming back,” she announced.
Translation: I still dictate the rules.
From Mitch’s understanding, some people with DID could switch on command, some couldn’t. He wasn’t sure where Eve was on that spectrum, but he’d soon find out.
“Wouldn’t want it any other way,” said Mitch.
Eve looked down at her lap, head bowed, but Mitch could see a smile grace her lips, one that was tender and warm. When she looked up at him, he knew she was gone.
“Hello,” the girl said in a British accent. “Who are you?”
“Well, hello there, Ruby,” said Mitch with a broadening grin.
CHAPTER 32
“WHO ARE YOU?” RUBY asked again. She languidly scanned her surroundings, didn’t act or sound the least bit concerned, which Mitch figured was the ketamine still working its magic.
“My name is Dr. Mitch,” he said.
“Okay, Dr. Mitch,” Ruby answered cheerily. “So … um … where the heck am I?”
Is this a game? Is it real? Mitch could only speculate.
“You’re in a therapy room at a hospital. You’ve been here for some time.”
“A hospital? Am I okay?”
“You’re fine. More than fine.”
She assessed him warily. “Well … if I’m so fine, why am I here then?”
Her cocked eyebrow all but said gotcha.
“We can get to that in a bit,” said Mitch. “First I was hoping we could talk. I’m recording the conversation, is that okay?”
Ask Eve … ask Ruby, treat each alter as an individual and with respect.
“Yeah, fine to record,” she said in that lilting accent. “Okay, then … what do you want to talk about?”
“Maybe tell me a little bit about yourself for starters?”
She looked a tad uncertain. “Well, name’s Ruby. I’m sixteen. I live in Swampscott, Massachusetts … love the ocean, like roller coasters, and want to be a VSCO girl.”
“A VSCO girl?” Mitch asked, eyebrows arching. “What’s that?”
“Like you don’t know?”
Judging from her surprised voice and expression, Mitch might as well have said he’d never heard of dinosaurs.
“Honest, I don’t,” he confessed.
He couldn’t place her accent. To his ears she sounded like Hermione Granger, and it was possible that Ruby came from Penny’s interactions with the world of Harry Potter. Grace had said she was a fan of the books and movies beforehand, so it wouldn’t shock him if some amalgam of them gave rise to Ruby. No matter her origin, she fulfilled a very specific purpose in Penny’s psyche.
“VSCO girls are girls who favor crop tops, like their shorts short, and always have a scrunchie on the wrist.”
“A scrunchie?”
“You know, for the hair,” she said, tugging on her own long locks, which came free from the band used to hold them in a ponytail. She spun her head from side to side, flinging her hair from shoulder to shoulder, carefree and wild, which put a bright smile on her face.
“They know all the hot trends. Hydroflask bottles, I mean where do you think that got started? VSCO girls, that’s where. Whatever they post or share, it goes viral. Just how it is.”