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The theory of reconstructive memory suggests that the process of recalling our memories is not an accurate, passive playback, but rather we complete an active process of reconstructing the memory from fragments of memory that we have remembered.
The theory was coined by Bartlett and supported by his War of the Ghosts study but has been criticised for being researcher biased. The aim of the study was to find out how cultural schemas—our expectations of the world based on our culture—alter memories of a story from another culture, and the results fully support the theory of reconstructive memory.
When Daisy knocks on his office door, Morello looks up from his notes.
"Come in." He says, sipping black coffee from a chipped, stained white mug and adjusting his glasses.
His office has cream walls that now have burnt spots from Mark, a wooden floor with scratch marks and cracks, bookshelves and two chairs in front of his desk, which is scattered with books, papers and photos. It used to just smell of coffee and cigarettes, but now it smells of fire, coffee and cigarettes.
Little Mark just couldn't control it's powers. That's okay though. Mark isn't here anymore for good reason.
Daisy stands awkwardly in the doorway for a moment. Her golden, curly hair resting on her shoulders, her freckled cheeks slightly flushed and her fingers fidgeting with her necklace. She's wearing a multicoloured, short-sleeved shirt and a black pleated skirt. Her socks are mismatched and come up to her knees, and both her wrists are covered in bracelets.
"You said you wanted to see me, doc?" Daisy tentatively approaches Morello's desk, smiling faintly. She fidgets with her skirt, rubbing the fabric between her thumb and forefinger.
Daisy was never this shy before Mark died. Died. Mark is dead. The kid was fourteen when he left—it's not like he can sustain himself for too long. He was reckless and a danger, and Morello just couldn't have the girls around that.
The girls had processed Mark's death differently; while Jay had become an angry mess of screaming, slamming doors and shoving, Daisy was a helpless mess of cookies, crying and cowering. She was easier. Although both the girls were practically Morello's daughters (it's not like either of them have actual fathers anyway), Morello did prefer Daisy because of this. She didn't yell, she didn't lie, she didn't steal, she didn't shove; she listened, she talked, and she was a good kid.
Jay's reaction was expected—children from broken homes commonly have behaviours such as Jay's, and Jay was surely from a broken home. Oppositional defiant disorder is common in abused children like Jay. Jay needs structure, strict rules and consequences rather than the support Daisy needs.
Playing favourites, Jay says, but what does she know about how brains work? Daisy is anxious; Daisy is helpless; Daisy is the youngest, so obviously she needs more attention. Jay is set on being independent anyway.
"Yes, Daisy. I would like to commend you for your treatment of Jay. I understand she is… exceptionally difficult because of…" The sentence hangs open; Morello signals with his hands, and Daisy looks down and nods, "But, sadly, that is how some people from situations such as Jay's react."
Daisy smiles shyly. "Thank you, Dr Morello."
Morello smiles back. "You can call me Rupert when we're alone."
Daisy nods. "Can I leave now, Doc—" Realising her mistake, she corrects herself, "Err, I mean, Rupert?"
Morello chuckles to himself. Daisy's always been so mature and so amazing with rules—nothing like Jay and her screaming, slamming and shoving. If you didn't know Daisy, with her maturity, you wouldn't ever guess she had only just turned thirteen. "Not just yet, Daisy. I have some other things to talk to you about."
Daisy seems to shrink at this, which makes Morello smile.
"Don't worry, you're not in trouble—you're too mature to be a troublemaker." He says, signalling for Daisy to take a seat, which she does.
"Now, Daisy, I recall you saying you have an interest in psychology. Is that still accurate?" Morello asks, putting his hands together. Sometimes, when children undergo trauma, they lose interest in things—especially children with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Now, it's not like Jay and Daisy are diagnosed with ODD and PTSD respectively but they're his girls and he's their therapist (even if he isn't exactly a psychotherapist) and he's not stupid—he's smart enough to make the descision of what the girls' symptoms are indicative of.
"I still have an interest. I want to help people—like you do." Daisy says, now looking to meet Morello's eyes with a smile.
Morello laughs. "That's a very noble cause, Daisy."
Daisy nods pridefully.
After a moment of figuring out how to word what he's going to say, Morello speaks. "Psychology isn't all about disorders. There's also memory, and I would like to understand how your memory works."
Daisy nods, her interest piqued. "So, like, an experiment?"
"Yes."
Daisy smiles. "Oh, awesome!"
Morello smiles back, amused. "Awesome indeed, Daisy. You can go now."
That's all the consent Morello needs. He can't exactly tell Daisy what he's going to do without ruining the experiment.
Aside from Bartlett's own War of the Ghosts study, another way the theory of reconstructive memory is supported is the existence of false memories. False memories are memories of events that seem true but did not happen. These come about either because they have been implemented—sometimes in therapy—or they are memories that are remembered very differently than how the event actually happened. Loftus & Pickrell's Lost in the Mall (1995) study proved that false memories can be implanted via suggestion.
At breakfast the following morning, Daisy is wearing a pink hoodie with chewed strings, a white skirt and rainbow stockings. She's also wearing a beanie—blue and grey stripes. Mark's beanie. She doesn't recall the conversation from yesterday, and she doesn't need to. She already agreed.
Upon seeing it, Jay stops eating her pancakes and immediately shoots up. Her jaw clenches and she looks at Daisy like she's the one who killed her mom and burnt down her house.
Now, Mark wasn't exactly trying to kill Jay, but Morello knew how stubborn Jay was. Jay was Mark's only friend and vice versa, and to keep her safe because the outside world hates people like her—perfectionists—and "people" like Mark and people like Daisy, Morello knew he had to tell a lie.
Intending to burn down her house and kill her mother is close to intending to kill her too. Mark was incredibly hard to understand in the last few months of his life, so for all anyone knows, he was trying to kill Jay.
It was just a white lie to make her listen to him and not question his authority. Children with ODD have an exceptionally difficult time with authority; it's a key symptom. After some time, Jay started remembering things about Mark that didn't happen but matched Morello's retelling.
He'd caused Jay to develop false memories. Ethically, this might be questionable, but psychologically it's fascinating. Debriefs exist for a reason! It's about false memory; he can't exactly get informed consent.
Jay's outburst is giving Morello an opportunity to test this on Daisy. As Jay yells at Daisy for things that don't exactly make sense, he devises a plan. A script on what to say.
Jay storms off, slamming the kitchen door hard enough that the whole house seems to shake. After a beat of complete silence, Daisy's breathing becomes fast-paced and shaky. Quick to follow are tears and a babble of I didn't mean it like that and why does she hate me so much?
Morello hums thoughtfully, circling the table until he's behind Daisy. He places a reassuring hand on her shoulder and sighs.
Now, maybe it's ethically questionable to use this vulnerable moment of Daisy's to test his hypothesis, but he doesn't have many oppurtunities like this, does he?
He clears his throat. "Daisy, Jay doesn't hate you, dear. She hates Mark." He reassures. Daisy looks up at him with her watery eyes.
"Mark didn't—" she begins, her voice shaking. Morello shakes his head.
"Mark was a sick, unstable boy. He hurt her." He says sternly. "He hurt you." He adds on.
It's only partially a lie. In his last week, he hissed at her and he scratched her. He stopped answering to Mark and would lock himself in his room. In his last months, he withdrew himself, exhausted from the training. He wouldn't eat, he stopped drawing, listening to music and playing games with Daisy, and he started sneaking out more. On his last day, he scratched Daisy so hard he drew blood.
Mark was unstable. Maybe the training broke something in him, or maybe he was always like that. A sick, sick boy.
Daisy looks at Morello, offended. "He didn't hurt me! He was my brother. " She half-yells.
Morello sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. Daisy would defend him until his last breath, wouldn't she? Even after the house he burnt down and even after poor Carrie Mazziotta's death. Carrie Mazziotta's murder.
She idolised Mark, even after nearly a year. Neither of the girls had adjusted well to his death. Maybe Daisy wasn't angry, bitter and resentful like Jay, but at least she wasn't idolising a murderer/arsonist.
He tuts. "You're mature for your age, Daisy. It's a shame you idolise Mark so much."
Daisy doesn't say anything for a moment. She looks down, ashamed, then speaks. "He never hurt me. He— he didn't want to hurt anyone. He told me."
Morello purses his lips. "He was obsessive, Daisy. Don't you remember what he did?"
Daisy shakes her head. "He didn't do anything!" She raises her voice. Morello won't tolerate this disrespect.
"He's a murderer! What, do you want to turn out the same way as that thing? He wasn't your brother; he wanted to kill you!" He stands up, his voice raised loud enough Daisy flinches and begins to shake, but not loud enough Jay can hear.
After a moment of Daisy sobbing, Morello sighs and sits back down. He shakes his head. "I'm sorry I yelled, dear. You're just so stubborn on some matters. It's frustrating."
Daisy nods. "I don't… want to hurt… anyone…" She says through sobs.
"I know. That's why you can't keep looking up to Mark."
Now, Mark is a murderer, and he is Daisy's brother, but he didn't want to hurt her. He confided in Morello about being scared of losing control and hurting Daisy. He confided about his fears of Daisy finding out and thinking he's some kind of freak.
He is a freak. A mistake of nature. He was right about that.
Over the next few days, Morello begins calling Daisy into his office at noon sharp. He asks her about Mark. He asks her if she remembers things that never happened, and he takes notes.
She begins remembering. She adds details, she gets scared when talking about her recollections, and she stops arguing when Jay curses Mark's name, but she still wears that stupid beanie.
At least he's finally getting somewhere.
She sits in the chair in Morello's office, swinging her legs occasionally. She's wearing a t-shirt with little rainbows printed on it, blue jean shorts and rainbow tights. She's still wearing that stupid beanie.
Morello ashes his cigarette and smiles at her. "You always pick such nice outfits."
Daisy laughs nervously. "Yeah, uhh… my mom never let me pick outfits, so it's fun to do it!"
"You sound nervous. Why's that? Have our sessions been too much, dear? I understand that recalling such repressed memories can be… a lot." He places a hand on her shoulder.
Daisy shakes her head. "I'm okay." She says, forcing her lips to form a smile.
Unconvinced, Morello nods. "You can talk to me, dear."
Daisy sighs, looking at her hands. "When I was making cookies earlier, I thought of Mark." She confesses. "You said he wanted to kill me, but he never…" Her voice trails off.
Morello shakes his head, frustrated. "He did hurt you, Daisy. Don't you remember all we've discovered?"
Daisy frowns. "I know he hurt me, but I don't… I'm not talking about that."
"What could you possibly be talking about then?" Morello sighs in exasperation, rubbing his temples.
"Did he actually want to kill me?"
Morello tenses his jaw. "Yes. Do you not remember?" Why is she being so difficult?
Daisy purses her lips. "…You say this every time. I— I just don't think he—"
Cutting her off with a sigh, Morello shakes his head. "Daisy, Mark was very sick; this shouldn't be something that you doubt, especially with what happened to Jay."
Shrinking into herself, Daisy nods. "I know, doc, just…" She struggles to find the correct words. Morello watches her with intrigue.
"Before he, err… did everything, he told me he was sorry and that he was scared," she confesses, a heavy weight lifting itself from her chest. Morello raises his eyebrow, which replaces the weight that just lifted with a heavy sense of dread.
She knows that look all too well.
Morello remembered what she was talking about—an hour before what happened, he gained a sudden sense of clarity. He was scared, but he was fully responsive. He told Morello that it was going to hurt someone, and then he was gone again.
Morello sighs. "Yes, but you have to remember Daisy—he was incredibly ill. Sometimes these things happen. Don't you remember what he did to you? Not just what he did to Jay, but what he did to you."
Daisy folds her hands in her lap and nods. A stray tear falls and it's then Morello knows he's succeded.
Jay had one thing to do. Look through Morello's office to find Mark's necklace.
Drawer after drawer after drawer to no avail. She sighs—why is she even doing this? It would've been better for Mark (or whatever he is now) to stay gone.
He killed her mom; he burnt down her house, but sure, she has to look for his stupid fucking necklace to see if it'll make him more lucid.
She checks the last drawer in the room—the one in Morello's desk. It's locked, unsurprisingly.
She sighs through teeth she didn't know were gritted and takes the hairpin Daisy had given her to unlock Morello's office. She jabs it into the lock and twists until she hears a click and, with way more force than necessary, tugs it open.
The drawer flies out, its contents spilling all over the floor: Mark's necklace, newspapers, psychological papers, history books and two notebooks simply titled Theory of Reconstructive Memory and Mark Noxx.
She kneels down and pockets Mark's necklace, feeling the anger burning in her chest grow when she does it—why couldn't Remington do this? Or Daisy? Why her?
She stays kneeling for a moment before grabbing the notebooks. She flicks through the pages, her face paling with each one.
Once she's done, she just sits there. Now, sure, Morello had told them about his hypothesis with Mark, but with Daisy? He used angry, traumatised teenage Jay to do that to Daisy.
She sits there for maybe ten minutes or maybe an hour, running through everything she remembers about Mark and everything she remembers about Daisy back then, until Remington knocks on the door.
Jay opens her mouth to try and say anything, but nothing comes out. It's then she realises she's hyperventilating.
Remington opens the door, her concern etched across her face. When she sees Jay with the notebooks, she knows.
"What happened?" The question is simple. It's free from Remington's usual unseriousness and jokiness. She sits next to Jay.
Jay opens her mouth, and everything comes out. Remington stares at her for a moment before pulling her into a hug.
There's a beat of silence before Remington speaks. "Do you think we should tell Daisy? Or HP… Mark…?" She asks, a nervous laugh escaping.
Jay sighs. "Maybe Daisy. I don't know if Mark'll understand. It's like… not even human. Mentally."
Remington nods. "Damn… That sucks… Uh, not just HP being, like, insane but… everything Morello did to you and Daisy. And me, but mainly you and Daisy. And Mark."
"I hate him so fucking much," Jay says for the first time ever, despite thinking it daily for the past five years.
Not knowing what else to say, Remington squeezes Jay's hand. "It'll be okay," she tries to reassure, "like… Morello's gone, so he can't do any of that shit to y'all now."
Jay can't help but laugh at Remington's poor attempt at reassurance. "You're awful at this."
"I am," Remington agrees. "Should we tell Daisy, or…?"
Daisy, who had apparently been watching this for at least a few minutes, finally makes her presence known. "Tell me what?" She asks, leaning against the doorframe. "If it's that you guys are dating, I already know."
Remington grimaces and gestures for Daisy to sit down. Jay hands the notebook titled Theory of Reconstructive Memoryto Daisy.
It takes one page for Daisy to start crying.