Mind: “She is not ours. You have no right to meddle in her life.”

Heart: “To be fair, you took a choice away from her – one I will regret forever. And I am not meddling. I have not shown her anything.”

Mind: “Then what is all this – the letters, the carefully selected art, and the poem?”

Heart: “The art and the poem are for her to find under the other name if she wants to look for them. The journal, even, if she had been able to. We’ve never used this name anywhere else, so she’s not going to find these letters, or this ‘crazy’ internalized conversation that we both know we’re going to delete immediately after we finish it.”

Mind: “Wishful thinking. Even if she were inclined to look for it, all of it would be much more than she would have bargained for anyway. You would send her running in the other direction with all this overwhelming content. And let’s not forget, you brought her to meet us in person. She might have been happy living her life without us. What if you’ve stirred up something within her that she didn’t intend to deal with?”

Heart: “Oh, don’t be so conceited.”

Mind: “You are so selfish.”

Heart: “She has a huge claim within me, and I can’t take it away from her. What am I supposed to do with it? You keep her memories so vivid, so don’t be so self-righteous. When we saw her again, her face was exactly as you remembered it. Only she has that face. Not even our sister – once her best friend – recognized her when she saw her, you know. Neither of them knew each other at first. But you knew right away. You would have known her anywhere, even if we ran into her by accident.”

Mind: “Your influence is powerful. I cannot touch those memories. You will not let them change. Time alters our perceptions. Our memories are supposed to change, but you disrupt the natural order of things.”

Heart: “They are true, as I would have them. She wanted me. She wanted me to belong to her, and I will not let that go.”

Mind: “You don’t know that. All you know is that she thought we were cute, and then immediately after she said it she stopped coming to visit us.”

Heart: “You cast doubt about my feelings for her then, and that kept us from going to talk to her after she left that message for us. Maybe she was mortified that we remained silent, and so she chose not to come back.”

Mind: “Or maybe it was something else.”

Heart: ”You’ve been playing devil’s advocate through this whole debate. How about you stick to what you really believe.”

Mind: “I don’t believe in anything. I give probability to things, and I present all of the possibilities. I’m honest. It’s you that believes. You want this great fantasy and fairy tale to be real. You want to think she is our true love. You want to think she is the one; our soulmate. But reality is going to hit you like a ton of bricks, and it will hurt unlike anything you’ve ever felt before. Stop setting yourself up for this colossal disaster. I have to deal with it as well, you know. I’ve let you have your way, and you’ve been wrong before.”

Heart: “I’ve also been right, but neither this nor that matters. I’ve never applied such honorifics to anyone else.”

Mind: “That doesn’t mean you can simply do it and have it be true.”

Heart: “Think back and find me one other person who deserves those titles?”

Mind: “Ah yes, she has the perfect story, doesn’t she? What more do you need, am I right?”

Heart: “Why do you have to maim such beautiful things? There was always much more to her than that.”

Mind: “You swear by our gut that she is special. You know what? If she turns out to be as you say she is, you should thank me for casting doubt and keeping us from going to talk to her all those years ago. Now you’ll both never have to wonder what else is out there. You’ve both gone and seen the world, and now you know for sure what you want.”

Heart: “Oh, you’ll give me that, will you?”

Mind: ”You do have good taste, I can’t deny you that. She’s a real piece of art, inside and out. You’re not the only part of us that’s been talking to me about her since she dropped by.”

Heart: “Don’t be vulgar.”

Mind: “You know what? Normal people let those parts have their way from time to time, but we have to be different, don’t we? You have to dominate all of our potential partner decisions. There is no letting anything else have a say.”

Heart: “It was you that put us where we are now. Imagine where we might be if we let anything else have their way? Yes, the partner decisions. Why is it exactly that I shouldn’t get them? I’m the one that gets the most out of it.”

Mind: “I’m sure we all get a great deal out of it. Besides, you should be more cautious. You don’t know everything about her anymore.”

Heart: “But that’s true about anyone.”

Mind: “I guess I can’t argue with that.”

Heart: “Then why bring it up?”

Mind: “Look, I respect that you want to believe in this, despite the low probability that I assign to it. We’ve been casting off such things for years, and you haven’t complained to me much about it. Why this? It completely conflicts with our philosophy.”

Heart: “Because I’ve never wanted anything more than this.”

Mind: “Do you think maybe that stems from past self-esteem issues?”

Heart: “I have no self-esteem issues now. I still want it.”

Mind: “You’d better be good to her. I won’t let you fuck with her.”

Heart: “I don’t want to fuck with her.”

Mind: “You don’t think some of that art might be a bit borderline?”

Heart: “If she wants to find it, that’s on her, and there’s nothing untrue about any of it.”

Mind: “She is not ours.”

Heart: “You said that already.”

Mind: “I don’t want you to forget it. I’m not going to let you hurt anyone. Especially those she cares about and who can make that claim. You have a severe need to be tamed.”

Heart: “I’ve never hurt anyone like that.”

Mind: “But she’s ‘special’, remember? Who knows what you might do if you decide not to listen to me?”

Heart: “It’s never come to that.”

Mind: “See that it doesn’t, or I will never let you forget it, ever. I will punish you for the rest of our life. I will constantly remind you how disgusted I am with you, and I hope she does too if you fuck up. You promised that she would be a friend if you couldn’t have her. I’m going to see that you stay true to your word.”

Heart: “One of us is right.”

Mind: “Or both of us is wrong. Now can we stop feeling a need to write out these conversations and keep them inside us where they belong? This is kind of nutty, and I have my reputation to think of.”