“Yes. I only surfaced when Iris called for me,” Netti says. “That was my purpose—to be here when she needed me. She would go many months without talking to me. The more time went by, the more she would need me when she finally called. The last time she called, she was in the river.”
The abrupt jump in time catches me off guard.
“That really happened, then?” I ask. “Kyle really did throw her off a bridge?”
“Yes.”
Just as soon as I think I have the facts straight, they turn around again. I had begun to believe that the whole bridge incident was something Iris made up, but now it seems it actually occurred. I consider getting my list out of the pocket of my parka, but I don’t want to leave Netti’s side.
“But…but she didn’t die, right?”
“She was badly hurt, so I swam for her. The current was fast, and we were so cold. It took a long time to get to the riverbank, and we were so tired…but our time in the water gave us a chance to think.”
“Think?”
“Think about how wrong it was for Seri to be dead and Iris to be alive. Seri was the one who was good. Seri deserved life, and Iris had only wasted the life she had. She was dying, and she realized that she deserved to die—that she needed to die.”
“Needed to die?
“It was the only way,” Netti says. “Seri deserved to have her life back, so Iris gave it to her.”
“I…I don’t understand.”
“When we crawled out of the water and up the mudbank, Iris died, and Seri was resurrected.”
“But Iris is still here.”
“Yes. That wasn’t supposed to happen. When we discussed it, Iris agreed to give up her life for Seri. I would stay around as Seri’s guide but only for a short time. Eventually, I would go with Iris.”
“Go? Go where?”
“Into nothing, I suppose.” She shrugs. “We would be no more, and Seri would have her life back.”
“But that didn’t happen.”
“Iris refused to leav
e. She wanted to live life with Seri—through her—and she wouldn’t leave. I stayed as well to mediate and to keep Seri safe. Iris often says it’s temporary, but I think she means to remain in Seri’s mind.”
“So how long has Seri been a part of you?”
“Nearly six months now,” Netti says.
“That’s all?” I can’t hide my shock. To me, Seri seems to be the most complete of all the personalities. To hear that she has been around for such a short time doesn’t seem possible. “And she has no idea that you and Iris exist? She doesn’t know that she actually died when she was fifteen?”
“Seri cannot know about any of this. It could damage her if she understood that she…that things are not as she remembers.”
“But she does remember some of it, doesn’t she? When Seri first told me about Iris, she said she was hit by a truck.”
“She did?”
“Yeah. Then later she told me that she’d lied about that, and that Iris had been murdered.
“I don’t know how that could be.” Netti frowns.
“I thought you were the one that knew everything the other two know.”
“I…I thought I was, too.”