Amanda Cadabra and The Strange Case of Lucy Penlowr Holly Bell (top 100 novels txt) 📖

about in children .... When trauma in young children causes what they call dissociation. And because it was about children, I got interested and looked it up. Yes, here! Dissociative identity disorder. It used to be called multiple personality disorder, see?’ Amanda pointed to the words on the screen.

‘Ah yes, I’ve heard of that.’

The keys patterned under her fingers. Trelawney went to his car, retrieved his laptop and soon they were rattling away in unison, side by side.

‘There’s more than one idea about the mechanism,’ he commented presently.

‘But the effect is the same,’ answered Amanda.

‘So ... multiple .... What if ...?’

She stopped typing and looked at him, eyes a-glow, nodding.

‘Yes. Elodie.’

‘Zoe.’

‘Marielle.’

‘Peter.’

‘Geoffrey.’

‘Of course: a system. Like a solar system.’

‘A family,’ affirmed Amanda.

Trelawney had never encountered anything like it. He read on.

Tempest rolled his eyes. How many aeons had it taken them to work this out? Human brains operated like treacle. It was a miracle they’d invented the wheel.

‘It says here that personalities usually switch in and out, so that time is missing. Because the next personality to switch in, has no knowledge of what took place while they were gone. But sometimes Elodie was there with others at the same time .... Ah no, wait, they can be co-conscious: two or more present and aware of one another at the same time. Like a ... a committee. But I’m not quite clear about how this came about in Lucy’s case.’

‘Actually, now I think about it, it all makes perfect sense,’ responded Amanda.

‘It does?’ It was not as clear to Trelawney.

‘Look. Alone and in danger. It’s happened to you as an adult.’

‘Yes.’

‘But you see, what would you do if you were little? What are little children good at? They can make imaginary friends. And that’s all very well if you just want someone to do things with. But what if you needed an imaginary friend to actually do things for you, face things for you. Be you instead of you?’

‘So, you make another you? A bigger, stronger, wiser you,’ Trelawney responded.

‘When you’re little, someone even just a couple of years older seems so much more so. So little Lucy made Elodie and, to separate herself entirely from Lucy’s life, little Lucy changed her name to Zoe.’

‘And they remain children — arrested emotional development, but the body grew, and they accumulate experience. Ok, so that takes care of Zoe and Elodie. What about the others?’

‘Well, Uncle Mike said Elodie talked about one of the Dowrkampyer sons making advances to her. Advances she’d be expected to accept. How could two little girls deal with such a situation? They’d need someone grownup. Zoe had done it once, making another person, so ....’

‘She could do it again. Maybe Elodie could do it too, and so either one or both created Marielle. Of course. And it was an extremely complicated situation. They also needed a strategist: Peter.’

‘Then, as things got more and more dangerous, someone to protect them all.’

‘Geoffrey.’

‘Lucia Palomo ....’

‘The name on the doorbell!’ they said in unison.

‘The clue was there all along,’ added Amanda. ‘Lucy Penlowr, Lucille Charpentier, Lucia Palomo, just the name on the documents, the name on the house. But the five personalities are the people, the occupants.’

Chapter 25

Understanding Lucy

‘The title on the committee room door, then, is Lucy,’ concluded Trelawney.

‘Or like a surname,’ suggested Amanda. ‘No one in the family has that as a given name, but it means they are part of that family.’

‘Aha yes,’ Trelawney agreed enthusiastically. ‘Take a family of the name of “Smith”: John Smith, Mary Smith, David Smith. There is no Smith but there once would have been.’

‘Oh, that’s good. Just as there once was a Lucy, pre-trauma. Now there’s Zoe Lucy, Elodie Lucy and so on.’

Fired by their progress, Amanda and Trelawney continued researching.

Presently, Amanda remarked admiringly, ‘After fourteen years of therapy, the Lucy family has reached a remarkable resolution.’

‘Indeed .... It’s different from schizophrenia, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, that seems to be a common misunderstanding: people with schizophrenia don’t have multiple personalities .... Oh. Multiples just used to be thought mad or dangerous or possessed. How awful. Dissociative identity disorder does have wider acceptance now. Some younger people actually come out in the open about it …. In some cases, people have far more than five personalities ... and, oh, it looks like often the main one, or the spokesperson, is the original one.’

‘And there are different theories as to how it comes about,’ Trelawney commented. ‘It’s a bit confusing. It isn’t just facets, is it? Like we all have.’

‘Not facets. The personalities are very distinct. Remember the hand-writing on the two lists Uncle Mike showed us?’

‘The first sloped forward,’ recalled Thomas, ‘the second sloped slightly backwards.’

‘And the five of them have different voices, gestures, mannerisms. Peter puts his hands in his pockets and rocks on his heels.’

‘Zoe walks flat-footed: stomps, Marielle glides. Elodie walks purposefully but lightly. Geoffrey has his arms by his sides.’

‘They have different speech patterns. And Zoe tucks her hair behind both ears,’ Amanda remembered. ‘Elodie only one, Marielle neither.’

‘Peter clears his throat. I imagine Geoffrey breathes deeply. He’s always relaxed. Yes ... yes, I see.’

Good grief, thought Tempest from the sofa back. Finally. It’s like watching the Alps form.

Amanda put a hand on Trelawney’s arm and said intensely:

‘This can’t wait. We have to go back to Uncle Mike’s.’

Trelawney nodded.

‘I’ll drive; you text him.’

They had to kick their heels while Tempest’s car blanket was warmed on the radiator, as he indicated it was his pleasure to accompany them.

Despite the urgency they felt, the inspector kept to the speed limit, but they hurried up the path and in through the latched door.

Mike was up a ladder