And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils….
—Luke 8:2
“Faith, can you hear me?” Sapphire said as Charity lay on the couch in the therapist’s modestly furnished office. Charity was getting better, but they still hadn’t gotten to the root of her problem and her two other personalities were very much still intact.
“Faith, this is Sapphire. I need to speak with you. Will you please come out and talk with me? Faith. Come on. I know you can hear me.”
It had been almost an hour now, and Sapphire was becoming frustrated. “Hope, can you hear me? I need to speak with one of you. Come on, somebody talk to me.”
Trinity began to make a whimpering sound.
“Hope, is that you?”
“Yes, this is Hope.”
“Hope, this is Sapphire. I need to talk with you about Charity.”
“What do you need?”
“First, can you tell me why Faith refuses to talk to me?”
“Faith doesn’t trust you. She thinks what you’re trying to do is ultimately going to destroy Charity. And we both are aware that should you succeed, we will no longer be this powerful trinity we have become. Yet Faith, especially, does appreciate when you refer to us as Trinity. It makes her feel like we’re not being completely ignored or disrespected,” Hope said.
“Okay, Hope. I appreciate you for being willing to help. I’ve asked this before. Something happened when Charity was a young girl. Do you know what happened?”
Hope released a sigh. “I know the first part, but only Faith knows everything.”
“Can you tell me the part you know?”
Hope began to twist and turn. “No, no, no. Stop it! Stop it!”
“Hope, what’s wrong?”
“He’s there talking to Mother, and he’s hurting her again. Charity sees him and she’s telling him to stop. But Mother yells at Charity for her to go to her room and close the door. Instead, Charity goes outside to get Motherphelia. When Motherphelia comes inside, he’s being nice to Mother and Mother is playing it off like Charity got it all wrong. But Charity didn’t get it wrong.”
“Okay, Hope. You’re doing very well. Hope, do you know who this man is?”
Hope began to twist again. “Stop it, Faith! Stop it. Let me tell her what I know.”
“Faith, Faith? This is Sapphire. Can you hear me, Faith? I’m trying to help. I’m trying to help all of you. This is going to help Charity heal. I’m only trying to help.”
“No, you’re not. You’re trying to destroy our very existence,” Faith said.
“Faith, I’m not trying to destroy anyone,” Sapphire said. “Charity deserves to be healed, and she can’t do it without facing her demons—the demons of what happened that caused this—and coming to terms with it all.”
“Charity can’t handle it. I know she can’t. And I believe I know her better than you, and what’s best for her, better than you.”
“What makes you think she can’t handle it? Charity is a strong woman. Look at all she has accomplished so far, without anyone’s assistance.”
“Charity was standing up there Sunday at the altar. Did you see her? I guess she thinks Hope and I are her strongholds. She wants to get rid of us, and much of this is your doing. We were all doing fine before all of you Jesus freaks started poking your noses in our business.”
“Faith, all of you were not doing fine. Charity’s mind was and still is being tormented.”
“Oh, I guess you blame me for that? I didn’t create myself. Charity needed me. Don’t you get it? She allowed this blessed trinity to develop in order to cope.”
“She has the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is the true, blessed Trinity. This trinity can help Charity if only you’d let go and allow them in completely to heal her. Help me instead of fighting against me,” Sapphire said. “Work with me, Faith.”
“Where’s Dr. Holden? I’ll talk to Dr. Holden and tell him.”
“Dr. Holden is taking time off for the next few weeks.”
“I’ll speak with Dr. Holden, and only him. I don’t trust you, Sapphire. You know this. If you want me to tell what I know, you get Dr. Holden for me and I’ll tell him.”
Sapphire sat back in her chair. “Right.” She and Dr. Holden had had a long talk earlier on Monday when she came in to work. Sapphire had no idea something was going on in his life. She knew he was a hard worker, but he confessed to her how he’d become a workaholic to the point his wife had left him and taken their four children with her. To prove to his wife that he was a changed man who had seen the errors of his ways, he was taking off the next three weeks to spend time with his own family. There was no way Sapphire was going to call him in. And even if she did, according to him, he wasn’t going to allow anything or anyone to interfere with proving to his wife he meant what he’d promised so many times before but hadn’t followed through on. He only came in to work on Monday to clear up his calendar.
“Faith, Dr. Holden won’t be back for another three weeks. There’s no reason for you to be this way. You and I can work this out; you know I care about you.”
“You don’t care about me!” Faith said. “You only care about Charity and maybe Hope a little, although you’re still willing to sacrifice Hope’s existence in order to save our sweet little Charity. So don’t be using that psychology junk on me. I’m the ultimate professional when it comes to mind games.”
“Is that how you convinced Charity she needed you?” Sapphire stood up. “Using mind games? You do know there are other ways I may be able to help Charity without your cooperation, don’t you?”
“Yeah, probably. But can you be certain Charity will truly remember? And you really need to ask yourself whether or not she truly needs the information I hold in order to be made whole. See, the way I calculate things: if you’re wrong and I’m gone for good, what I know will be lost forever. Once I’m gone, I’m not coming back, even if you both beg me to. So the question you must ask yourself is: Is what I know about what happened so important that Charity not ever knowing it could end up ultimately destroying her completely? What if what I know sends her to a place of no return?”
“I think you may be underestimating Charity. What if she decides to integrate without you telling me anything, and then what you remember becomes part of her memory again without you? I believe it would be better for all concerned if you were to just tell me what you know since you seem to have handled this information so well all of these years. Personally, I believe in Charity. And believe it or not, I truly do believe in the power of you three becoming one again.”
“Get Dr. Holden for me, and I will tell him everything I know,” Faith said. “Everything. Get him and we can proceed from there.”
And then she was gone.
Charity came out of it and slowly sat up. “What happened?” she asked Sapphire.
“Well, I got Faith to talk to me this time around.”
“Did she tell you—?”
“No. She refuses to tell me anything, but she did say she would tell Dr. Holden.”
“That’s good, isn’t it? Or do you think she’s stringing you along again like she did the time before?”
Sapphire smiled and shook her head. “I don’t know what she’s up to. But I did tell her I feel you may be able to remember on your own. And it’s possible, Charity. If you were to reconnect…to integrate your personalities back into just you, you would remember everything without Faith’s cooperation.”
“Yet the question remains: Can I handle knowing it? Can I handle it, Sapphire? To be honest with you, I’m just not so sure that I can.”