“Do we have the right to protect the Collective? I would argue that is our sole responsibility.” Trudi calmly answered.
“Yes, but at what cost? How can we decide to lock someone down?” Linda tried to reason with Trudi. Ever since her talk with David about the possibility of how including Jo more could help them all, she had been thinking more about Jo and their treatment of her. And, although she still couldn’t see Jo as a member of the Collective, she was struggling with what Trudi was proposing.
“The Collective is to be protected at all costs. How can we not make that decision? She has proven the risk for her being out here is too great. Furthermore, twice this has happened and now she seems to be getting wiser to the fact she needs to do something without planning or forethought.” Trudi said.
“Hello, bridge jump, anyone?” Sam muttered to nobody in particular.
Trudi ignored her and continued talking, “I fail to see any other way to protect the Collective than to ensure she is not allowed out, at least for the time being.”
“But this is Jo. She’s the original. I mean, it’s one thing to lock a member down - but her? Anything may happen.” Linda was unsure why she was fighting so hard for Jo, when she fully agreed something drastic had to be done.
“And we will cope with any ramifications that come up if or when they do. However, until we understand how Jo managed to emerge and take those steps, we have no alternatives. The only choice we have is for her to be on lockdown. The risk to the Collective is far too great.”
Linda tried to reason with her. “You know David wants to work with her? And he seems to think if we included her more, then perhaps we could work out why this happened and maybe stop it happening again.”
“I’m afraid it is too late for that. With hindsight maybe we should have looked into David working with her a little more, but right now we have to simply ensure the safety of the Collective.”
“Listen, I understand something has to be done, I really do. But I have a real issue with this. We are talking about taking away someone’s freedom.” Linda argued
“Not someone,” Sam interrupted.
“What?” Linda asked, puzzled.
Sam sighed exasperatedly, “Not someone, it’s Jo. She’s not one of us, she’s not really anything. I for one, am sick of this bullshit. Her coming out, all depressed. Now her trying to knock herself off, with little regard for what that would mean to the rest of us? Just lock her up and fucking leave her to rot.”
“You can’t do that!” Linda protested.
“Why the fuck are you fighting for her so hard? You agree with the rest of us, she is just a husk.”
“Maybe. But even if she is, it isn’t her fault.” Linda started to get upset.
“Well, if it isn’t her fault, whose is it?” Sam fired back.
“I don’t know, I don’t know how it all works, especially when it comes to Jo. Maybe it’s the mothers fault, maybe it is our fault, who knows?”
“Our fault? Why the fuck would it be our fault?” Sam demanded.
“Maybe those who came directly from Jo took too much of her when they were created, maybe they didn’t leave her with enough.”
Sam scoffed. “That’s bullshit, you know it is.”
“No, I don’t know it is at all. None of us know why things are the way they are, and why Jo is the way she is. But ever since David said if we included her a bit more maybe things would change, I’ve been thinking about it. What if he is right? What if locking her down just makes things worse?”
“How could it be worse? If she is locked down, then she can’t knock herself off. That’s what it boils down to.” Sam slammed her coffee cup down as she spoke, hard enough that the handle snapped off in her hand. “Son of a bitch!” she said angrily.
“I don’t understand why you are debating this, Linda.” Toni said, quietly. “You know something has to be done. And we don’t know what else to do, do we? How we can protect the Collective except to lock her down?”
“It just doesn’t seem right.” Linda protested feebly.
Trudi intervened, saying “The decision has been made. Jo will be locked down until further notice.” She stood up, making it clear the discussion was over. She went to walk out the dining room, before stopping. She turned back around, and, speaking directly to Linda, she said “We will see if there is a way to help her from within.” And with that, she left.
Silence filled the room, and Linda, Toni, Jordan and Sam sat together, not talking while they finished their drinks.
“One thing’s for sure.” said Sam, as she drained her now handle-less cup and stood up. “I’m not going to be the one to tell the doc what’s happened.”
“That’s going to make for an interesting session, that’s for sure.” Jordan agreed.
Linda
Linda remained silent, torn with how she was feeling. On the one hand, she knew something drastic had to be done. Jo had risked all their existence through her actions. Yet, she kept going back to that conversation with David. If they included Jo more, would they understand her better? Would that mean she/they would be able to control her suicidal impulses and they would all be safer from her attempts? David seemed to feel she was much more than just the original, the one born into the body. And while normally Linda could dismiss what someone from outside the Collective thought, David had been working with them for years, two and three times a week. So he knew them very well. And if he had a thought as to why something happened within the Collective, he was usually right. It was annoying at times, but he sometimes seemed to know the Collective better than they understood themselves.
Which begged the question - was Jo capable of much more than they were giving her credit for? Was she more than just the shell they had always seen her as?
** ** **
Linda decided to speak with Toni and see what she thought. Toni was very practical and down to earth. She was also very honest, to the point of brutality. The word in the Collective was she was unable to lie at all – a by-product of the mother’s style of upbringing.
“I’m not sure what you are asking.” Toni was saying.
“I just want to know what you think. David is usually right about things, and if he thinks there is a need to find out about Jo, maybe he is right about this as well.”
“Frankly, I don’t see that it matters. Perhaps he is right, perhaps he is not. But the fact still remains, Trudi has Jo in lockdown and that is the end of it.”
“But is it? Is it the end of it?”
“Of course it is. Trudi made the best decision for the Collective, then Demise enforced it.”
“Do you really believe that, Toni? I mean, honestly?”
“Of course.”
“Don’t you have any feelings about what has happened with Jo? I mean ok, she did the wrong thing, I get that. But I don’t know, did she deserve to get the crap beaten out of her? Then locked up for God knows how long?”
“Trudi wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t the best thing for us. If Jo was left to her own devices, she would have eventually succeeded and what would have happened to us once she killed the body? This was the best thing for us all, and the sooner you accept that, the better.”
“I don’t think I can accept it, Toni. I really don’t. I just think what it would be like if I was locked up the way Jo is.”
“She isn’t one of us. She isn’t a full person, you