Fiction

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“Hey, we need to ask the Lord to be with Sheriff Tom and Brena right now? Father, be with those two and anyone else who might be involved, be with them, help them in taking Brena into custody. Please let the total truth come forth, we pray in Jesus name! AMEN”

“I agree with Joie, Lord, and thank you for her and for Doc Heinz, without them I might have died several days back. Thank you so much for sending them, even if Joie did have a hand in ruining my watch dog, Cody.”

Upon hearing his name Cody’s tail is thumping on the back of the seat.

“Come on into the clinic. Let’s see if Doc has a minute to look at your leg. These two will be ok out here if we leave the windows open a bit for some fresh air.”

“Joie, I am so glad to see you two here. We just heard on the scanner that there is a fire out at Jerry’s place. I thought you two were still out there!”

“Oh, no! Did they say anything else? We need to get back out there!!”

“Wait, let me call Mack, he is with the volunteer fire department. Maybe he can save us a trip. Besides the Sheriff said not to go home until he called us with an “all clear”, Jerry.”

“Uh, huh. OK, yes, we will stay put. Is everyone ok? Oh…..”

“Mack says the only thing that burned was your storage shed out back. The Sheriff got there in time to see Liz pouring flammable liquid. It went up with the first match. Liz saw him and took off through the trees to your folk’s place. He and his helper were in pursuit.”

“Jerry, I am sorry to say that your ex-wife didn’t make it. We were after her, she took off in a car. She was driving too fast, lost control and hit a tree. She died instantly.”

Jerry looked totally overwhelmed. “This is too much. I just don’t understand. There are so many questions, poor Liz.” The sheriff had come into the exam room where Doc Heinze was checking Jerry’s sutured leg. It seems like it was just yesterday that he first came in to have sutures on the massive slices from the feral hogs. It was over a week ago.

“Joie, would you please re-bandage this?”

“Doc what do you know about MPD? Is it possible that she really didn’t realize that she was Liz and Brena? Didn’t you minor in psychology in medical school?”

“Well, we are finding out more about Multiple Personality Disorder all the time but it is a complicated diagnosis. Sometimes one “alter” doesn’t have any knowledge of another “alter” within the same person. There is much conjecture as to the cause of this set of symptoms, even some credible sources who feel that there might be a demonic factor.”

“Sheriff, what other evidence did you find that you can tell us about?”

“I have the murder weapon, a rock with fingerprints on it. They came back identified as Liz Jamison’s prints. We also found a long piece of hair with the body which had been recently dyed black. We will do a match and see if that is the same as Brena’s/Liz’s hair. Apparently she was jealous of people her “alter” was close to but instead of killing her “alter” she killed the one who loved Liz. Somewhere deep down she must have realized that she couldn’t kill herself and, well, forgive me here, “live to tell about it”. So she killed or tried to kill those who loved Liz. She didn’t realize that she was, indeed, Liz. Jerry it also looks like Lou might not have known that Liz was Brena. We found black wigs locked up at her other apartment along with two totally different sets of clothing. One real feminine with ruffles and lace, the other strictly western, more like a ranch lady would wear, does that make sense?”

Jerry was frowning and rubbed his hand through his blond hair, “Yes, that was the only clue I got the years we were married about Brena’s existence. At times Liz would get into her cowgirl mode. She seemed to forget things we’d planned or talked about but always with a grin on her face. I thought she was playing games with me. Do you mean that at times she really didn’t know she was Liz?”

“Doc, what do you think?” I asked my boss.

“It is entirely possible. Also, there is nothing within the diagnosis of having multiple personalities that would rule out a spiritual side. If I had another entity inside my body I am thinking it would affect much that I did and thought. Diagnosing a schizophrenic or multiple personalities and more recently MPD is done by looking at a collection of symptoms in a person. It isn’t like strep throat where you do a culture and there’s the streptococcus.

There are lots of things here that medical science doesn’t know or have all the answer too.” (author’s note – you can look at various sites online to find out more about these interesting and many faceted diagnoses)

“I guess some of the questions we have from today aren’t going to have answers, are they, Joie?”

“It looks like we will have much to be thinking about for some time to come. I can give you a lift home now Jerry, right Sheriff?”
“Yes, you can go home. I might have some more questions later about Liz’s family and things like that.”

“OK, Sheriff. Joie, maybe my dressing change tomorrow could be a tame procedure, do you think? I am ready for some resting time about now. I am sure Cody will second that thought. Maybe sometime soon I will have to ease out of my hermitage and take you to a “thank you” dinner too, nurse Lady!” Jerry’s face broke a tiny smile that reached all the way up to his incredible blue eyes.
“I think that might be A-OK, anything to get you to be a reformed hermit!” I shove my ever unruly dark curls behind my ears once again turning to go.

Jerry walks out the door with only a slightly noticeable limp. Cody and Nehi are both standing at the same back window in the truck, their noses poked through the opening. I think that cat’s tail is wagging, I know Cody’s is.

(C) Marijo Phelps all rights reserved. Use with proper credits.

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