Half a Mind

by David Howells

  Me: I’ve never met someone like you and John. How do you two cope with sharing one body? How do you resolve conflicts that must arise when one ship has two captains?

  Jack: Nice turn of phrase. John would like that. We don’t cope. We peacefully coexist.

  Me: Jack, you know why I’m appointed to talk with you and John. A life was ended, and you are strongly suspected of having a hand in it. Can you talk to me about this?

  Jack: I could, but look at it from my view. If I say something that would bring punishment on myself, then I will have failed to protect my brother for the same punishment would be applied to him. My duty is to him, not some pathological bully.

  Me: So, the decedent was a bully? How so?

  Jack: Reply hazy. Check again later.

 

  Expert Witness Testimony Resumes

  “The two excerpts are consistent with the tenor of each personality throughout the interviews. John is more effusive, flamboyant and conversant. Jack is more terse and matter of fact. These differences in the typical multiple personality would direct a therapist to approaches to achieve reunification of the fractured parts. This is the first case to my awareness where unification of two separately functioning personalities is not possible. John and Jack are Siamese twins, joined at the whole body.

  “There is another aspect to this case that has not been seen before, and which may be germane to this case. John/Jack was examined by EEG, or electroencephalogram. The halves of the brain were documented to have independent functioning, corroborating my impressions through interview. The subjects agreed to a 72 hour EEG via a portable device that relays data to a recorder constantly during that time. I emphasize that the subjects have been and continue to be quite willing to participate in analysis. It is as if they are just as eager to find out more about them as we are.

  “A general pattern of wakefulness and sleep over that time resulted, though there were aberrations. John was more of a night owl, eventually sleeping between 11PM and 1AM. His wake-time ranged from 7 to 9AM. Jack’s brain would hit the hay earlier, from 9:30 to 10PM, and wake at 6AM punctually. This is consistent to the whole, with John being more variable and free form, Jack more regimented and leaning to things regular and predictable. Patterns of sleep, including REM stage, indicated that the two brain halves dreamt separately. I have not had sufficient time with the subjects to investigate comparative dream analysis.

  “During hours where only one of the subjects is awake, his counterpart’s patterns on EEG vary according to physical levels of activity or sensory input. For example, John may be watching a television program and Jack will sleep through it. If the sound is turned up too high, it will disturb Jack’s sleep or even wake him up. During times when both subjects are awake, there appears to be shared time frames where either subject may be at the helm, initiating speech, performing tasks, interacting with other people. During that time the subjugated half appears to be either actively eavesdropping, or in a secondary state where he is active, but not aware of external circumstances…perhaps in a meditative state.

  Trial Resumes

  Dr. Janice Halloway’s testimony so far felt right, accurate, and as whole as was possible in an almost completely new situation. Looking up from her notes, “This concludes what I have been able to discover to date. As for Counsel for Defense’s question regarding the subjects’ sanity, it is my opinion that both Jack and John appear sane when measured by parameters we apply to minds with one occupant only. There has never been a case like this, so there are no corroborating data base to assure our measuring techniques are valid in this case.”

  “Defense has no further questions.”

  “Does Counsel for the Prosecution have any questions?”

  “I do, your Honor. Dr. Halloway, you state that we are dealing with two minds in one body. Would both or only one of them actually commit the murder?”

  “I OBJECT! There has been no conviction of that crime here.”

  “Sustained. Prosecution? Rephrase.”

  “Yes, your Honor. Dr. Halloway, if the subjectS, as you put it, were to engage in some level of violent activity, would it be a unified and agreed-to activity, or could it be something engaged in exclusively by one personality?”

  “Counsel, this is new territory. My answer would be speculative, but based on what we have gathered so far and feel confident of. John/Jack is capable of unified or at least agreed-upon activity, though the individuals may feel be prompted by different incentives, or feel differently about the outcome. If the activity is violent enough when one side is sleeping, it would most likely affect a wakening and awareness. When one personality is in what I suspect is a meditative state, it appears to me that there is an actively constructed barrier to outside input that allows for a higher degree of resistance to outside input. That barrier is not insurmountable, and may be surmounted by moderate levels of pain. We noted this when Jack accidentally struck his knee while in his observation cell during the EEG analysis.”

  “Dr. Halloway, given your feelings that Jack and John are separate entities and both are sane, is it possible, in your opinion, for the subject, I’m sorry…subjects, to be questioned in this courtroom today?”

  “Objection!”

  “Denied. Question is reasonable. Dr. Halloway, answer the question.”

  “In my opinion, Jack and John are not only capable of being interviewed in this court, they are actually willing to be.”

  “No more questions. Your Honor, Prosecution calls to the witness stand the defendant.”

  “OBJECTION! Defense is not prepared for my client’s taking the stand.”

  “Then Defense had better GET prepared. This was a possibility you should have been aware of and prepared for. This court will recess until 2PM. That gives you three hours for a working lunch. At that time, the defendant…defendants will take the stand. Court is in recess.” ‘Rap’.

  Taking the Stand

  Testimony Transcript

  “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, so help you God?”

  “I do.”

  “The defendant will please take the stand.” The Bailiff stepped back to his station. The Judge spoke out.

  “Counsel for the Prosecution? You called the witness. Please proceed, carefully.”

  Prosecution heard the warning in wording, backed up by tone. This was a teenager being tried as an adult. This was also a two-for-one sale on ‘Defendants R Us’. First issue was, who was he speaking to? That was not a typical hurdle to jump.

  “Um, who am I talking to?”

  “Me, I assume.” There was the faintest rumble of laughter in the courtroom. The Judge’s expression made sure even that would be suppressed as much as possible.

  “Am I speaking to John or Jack?”

  “We’re both listening to you.”

  This was ridiculous, and getting nuttier by the second. He reworded his next question to side step this passive aggressive avoidance dance. “Happy to hear that. Is the entity that is responding to me right now John or Jack?”

  “Very good. You’re learning. I’m Jack. But if you want, address John and he will respond. Just say the name of the one you want a response from, and I promise you the right one will speak.”

  When had two people ever taken the stand at one time? His approach would have to be most cautious, for this trial would be picked apart by law students for decades to come. “Jack, are you familiar with the decedent, Billy Myers?”

  To the horror of Counsel of Defense, Jack replied, “Can we cut to the chase? I am very familiar with Billy Myers. He was the school’s worst bully, had his own little gang, sold weed, beat people up who were different. Jerk-off got away with a lot of it because his parents are connected. Friends of mine lived in fear each day of coming to school. Principal and security didn’t do squat about it. He’d ram anyone he didn’t like in the hallways and laugh; nerds, geeks, stoners, prissies
, anyone. He’s the one that knocked our friend Kwan down the stairs and busted his arm, just because he was Asian. Billy’s parents had it hushed up and paid a chunk of money to Kwan’s family to keep quiet. So, before Billy killed someone innocent, one of us killed him first.”

  “OBJECTION!!!”

  “Denied! Counsel did not lead the witness. This is voluntary disclosure and admissible. Proceed.”

  “Thank you, your Honor. As I was saying, Billy attacked and hurt anything he felt was different. Well, look at me. How much more different can you get? He’d of gotten to me eventually, but that didn’t matter. We ‘outside the norm’ guys have to watch out for each other. Unless one of us did something, someone was going to die. Authorities were useless. One of us had to become an authority. One of us did. By the way, the knife came from the cafeteria. It was easy to make a copy of the janitor’s master key when he was snoozing after hours in the teacher’s lounge.”

  Prosecution was floored. An admission of guilt? Already? The Judge said it was admissible? It can’t be that easy.

  Janet Halloway was watching from the gallery. She had been taken aback as well. That Jack/John was guilty had already been a near certainty in her mind. Now it was confirmed. But which one? Both? And an admission so soon? What was their game?

  “So, Jack, you admit to killing Billy Myers in the back of the school, with the knife from the cafeteria?”

  “Heh…sounds like a Clue game, doesn’t it? Counsel, you are looking at the face of a murderer that made sure Billy was alone by requesting a purchase of some dope. Billy heard ‘this is for Kwan’ when the knife went in, and you should have seen the look on his stupid face. Aiming for the heart would have been too quick. He had to have time to think about what had happened and to feel pain himself for a change.”

  “Which explains your prints being on the murder weapon.”

  “Yep, guess they were. Maybe one of us should have thought about that.”

  Remembering, somehow, that there was supposed to be a second person being questioned, “I would like to speak to John.”

  “John here. Nice tie, by the way.”

  “Um, thank you. John, have you heard all that was said by Jack and myself during this examination?”

  “Word for word, legal eagle. Excellent job in getting a confession so quickly. Kudos!”

  “So, John, do you concur with what your counterpart, Jack, has stated? You agree it was the truth?”

  “A hundred percent, organic, grade A honest truth, dude. You can take that to the ATM.”

  It really DID feel like there were two people here. But this, pair, had just confessed to murder. What was making John so perky, and Jack seeming so confident?

  “John, at the time of the murder, which Jack admitted to and you just corroborated, which of you were in charge, or was this a unified effort on both your parts?”

  “Counselor? That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? You are talking to a murderer, but who done it? It’s ‘Clue’ with a twist. In the back of the school, with a knife, but the killer card has two sides. Here’s my answer. I don’t remember. Violence can have a disruptive effect on this unusual cranial arrangement. Before you ask, I’ve talked with my brother and he will tell you the same. Lie detector test won’t work, because you have a completely new brainwave pattern that cannot be confirmed in our case to be valid for that test. Only one of us committed the crime. Of that we’re both very sure.

  “While we’re at it, the arresting officer read the usual Miranda rights. He read them to me, and I acknowledged it. Jack, however, was NOT read his rights. When you swore testimony just a short time ago, hand on the Bible and everything…which one of us was sworn in? I’m not sure. Are you?

  “Maybe you can get a conviction, which would be overturned fairly easily in a higher court by the way, where you are sure of one murderer and one who abetted said killer by covering his tracks. But would that be valid? A witness against the killer would never have protection from retribution, so you can’t protect the innocent brother sufficiently to make him feel safe enough to testify honestly.”

  To make a point, John slapped himself across the face, strong enough to where the reddening lasted for a good ten minutes. “Take that, Jack! More where that came from! Now, how are you going to protect the innocent from the guilty without punishing the innocent?

  John turned to the Judge, “So, your Honor, given the lack of proper protocol in arrest and swearing in, and given that it is impossible to determine the guilty party, and even if it were, it being impossible to punish the guilty and not the innocent, I’d say it’s about the time you declared a mistrial. You think?”

  Inner Thoughts

  Excerpt From Upcoming Book: “Double Vision”

  “It was for the best, Jack. It’s a comfortable cell. Only bars are on the window. Three squares, WiFi, video, gym access. Incarceration was inevitable, with or without the murder. Once ‘we’ were discovered, we’d be whisked away into some laboratory or other with no rights at all, examined in the name of advancing science.”

  “I know, Brother John. We had to be guilty for our own protection. The government couldn’t spirit us away with all that trial publicity. We can still be examined, but with our rights being watched over by the world.”

  John took the shared body over to the window and gazed outside. “Our admitted guilt also took away the fear of an unknown killer being still at the school. Our friends don’t have to be afraid anymore. Now, with Billy’s gang, I wonder how their absenteeism rates have risen. If their leader got knifed, maybe they’ll feel targeted next.”

  Jack let John do the driving. “Probably be GED’s for them as well as for us, but we’ll finish on-line college long before they do, I’ll wager.”

  “No bet, Jack. You know math and odds too well. What’s gambling to me is fish in a barrel to you.”

  “Maybe right, but we both threw the dice together, and here we are, probably for the rest of our lives. I weary of this. Whose turn is it on NetFlix?”

  “Yours, Jack, but please, no blood and guts stuff just now? We just ate.”

  “Pixar? There’s that new one we wanted to see.”

  “Agreed, Brother. We take turns with everything. Next murder’s on me.”

  Thank you for reading HALF A MIND in the ‘Slice of Life Series’. Feed back is welcomed at twosword@earthlink.net.

  I invite you to peruse the novels on this site. VANESSA, the flagship of a great decology, is offered to you at a respectful price of FREE. Fair warning, there be ghosts, angels and devils in them thar tomes.

  If you could do me a favor, and if you liked this story, help me in my aspirations to authorhood by leaving an evaluation, allowing me the honor of being listed on your ‘favorite author list’, and checking out other stories in the series (each is VERY different).

  David L Howells, DC, EMT, NMT, NUT

  NOVELS BY THE AUTHOR

  TIME SNAP – “In The Beginning” are the first words of Genesis, and they tell us that the first thing to be created was Time. When the machinery of Time fractures, all animal life on Earth freezes except those near enough to Heaven’s observation portals. While Heaven races to repair the machinery of Time, Host watch over Humans wandering through frozen life seeking other survivors, while watching out for Opposition Host.

  HELL RISE - The sequel to Time Snap. Hell is not what it used to be, as the Fallen Host radically change how they manage Human souls. One of Lucifer’s leading Angels wants Moriah back in Hell and will stop at nothing to either bring her back, or destroy her.

  VANESSA – A mentally fractured and hideously powerful spirit of a Georgian plantation and slave owner hold in thrall the men and mounts of a Civil War foraging party. She is avenging the death of her husband and children by putting the enemy spirits through a daily ritual of Hell. Ryan Fitzgalen was rendered spiritually clairvoyant and caused to be the world�
��s oldest man by a WW II experiment using electromagnetic power for naval stealth technology. He and the spirit of his deceased wife, Vanessa, are no match for Mad Annie, and so must call in his distant descendents to even the playing field.

  VANESSA: FAMILY TREE – Sequel to VANESSA. The epic battle was over at the Edwards Estate. The Fitzgalen Family regroups to lick its wounds, mourn its dead, and pursue their mission of saving souls stuck on the Earth plane. What happens when an underground spirit desperately hiding from judgment beneath the ground doesn’t want to be found, and is ready to strike anyone who tries?

  VANESSA: ALL HEAVEN BREAKS LOOSE – Sequel to Vanessa: Family Tree. Ever since humans began to wonder of the world’s miracles, knowledge of death and what comes after was precious and elusive. The Fitzgalen Family appears to have new authority in this awareness. That unwanted notoriety has a way of creating devotees, and very powerful enemies.

  VANESSA: MENDED HARPS – Sequel to Vanessa: All Heaven Breaks Loose. When a human spirit merged its energies with an ancient oak tree during the Battle of the Rhinebeck Cemetery, a new species was born. Amidst legal entanglements that hamstring the growing Fitzgalen Family’s efforts to pursue its holy mission of spirit liberation, a greater question arises; how do you deal with an emerging competitive species?

  VANESSA: FALLEN COLORS – Sequel to Vanessa: Mended Harps. Conclusion of the VANESSA series. The world’s religions have witnessed great changes, miracles, and proof that the dead walk the earth. Earth feels poised on the brink of a great change. The one who has a hope of leading the world away from cataclysmic holy wars of dominance is an autistic child, who is guarded by a being of great power…an Angel, Avenger Class.

  Contact the Author with Comments and Questions

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