“Glad you’re here. Would’ve tried to come find you myself,” Ruby said, “but this bath was too delightful, and Dr. Bouvier was nice enough to ring you for me.”
“Hello, Ruby,” Mitch said, wheeling over a metal stool. “How are you doing?”
“A bit confused, to be honest,” said Ruby. “One minute we’re talking VSCO girls and whatnot, and then this crazed woman comes bursting into the room, no idea what she’s going on about, and the next thing I know, I’m here, enjoying a soak.”
Ruby turned the faucet on, letting some hot water flow into the tub. The splashing of the falling water echoed in the quiet room.
“Hold on a second,” she said. “Got a little chill.”
She dunked her body, head included. Holding her breath, she stayed submerged for some time, her hair fluttering underwater like the tendrils of some great anemone. She surfaced, eyes still closed, and kept them that way.
“Can you hand me a towel,” she said to Mitch, who got one from a nearby rack. She dabbed at her eyes before opening them.
“So, Doc Mitch,” Ruby said cheerily. “Might you tell me what the hell is going on here?”
Mitch speculated that Ruby had fled Penny’s consciousness soon after the attack, making it a case of lost time for her. For reasons perplexing to Mitch, she’d reappeared, no explanation given, in this tub. Her tone suggested she wasn’t severely disoriented, shocked, or even upset by this turn of events, though Mitch suspected that was probably a mask for her true feelings. Elsewhere in Penny’s subconscious lurked fear and confusion, but letting Ruby and her world-be-dammed attitude come through was a bit like taking Tylenol for a fever—she was the perfect alter to suppress those troubling symptoms.
Mitch wondered if he simply could restart his efforts with Ruby.
“We were talking about your birth mother, Rachel Boyd,” he said. “Do you remember that?”
Ruby’s eyes squinted, probing her mind for that specific memory. She had a habit of twirling her hair, and spun a long, wet strand around her finger.
“Yeah, I remember,” she said, and Mitch sensed there was more behind it. Deeper memories, more painful ones, seemed suddenly within reach. He thought of getting his phone and setting it to record, fearing he might miss a chance to document something very un-Ruby-like—malevolence, evil, a psychotic break of some sort—but decided against it. A recording might make her think, and what he wanted from Ruby was to feel.
“What’s the last thing you remember, Ruby, the very last memory you have, before you and I were in that room discussing your plans to become a VSCO girl? Can you access that for me?”
Her face was a study of concentration, but there was sadness too, and it was impossible for Mitch not to feel her pain and frustration. She closed her eyes, gave a sigh, and stretched out her legs a bit longer in the steel tub.
“I don’t know,” she said with defeat in her voice. “It’s like a blank canvas … it’s like I wasn’t anywhere … like I didn’t exist. Is this amnesia? Do I have it? Is that why I’m in a hospital?”
“Yes,” Mitch said. “It’s something like that.”
“Then I can’t be of much help, I guess.” Ruby looked uncharacteristically irritated. “Was it a car accident? Did I bang my head? Oh, help me, was somebody hurt?” She gasped as if a memory had come to her. “Oh no … did somebody die?” She whispered, clearly hoping that it wasn’t true, “Did I kill someone?”
“Close your eyes,” Mitch encouraged. “Think about a car. Burgundy color, a Chevy Caprice. Do you know a car like that?”
Ruby’s eyes shuttered and she thought.
“That’s my dad’s car,” she said.
“Do you remember taking it without permission?”
“No.” She said it with confidence.
Mitch didn’t want to lead her, but Penny and Chloe had each referenced a book they were looking at that night, so perhaps mention of it might trigger a memory for Ruby as well. “Try this. Think long and hard about a book you may have been reading. The last book you remember reading.”
Ruby did as she was instructed.
“A book,” she said, making a delighted hmmmm sound as she gave her body a relaxed stretch. “Oh, yeah … that’s clear. I got it. It’s a book with water on the cover … boats … and water … but … I can’t think of the title.”