PREVIOUSLY:
1. "But what if I had reason to suspect[," says Olive, "]that I had been sent, through the ordinary postal system but with no postmark and no return address, Andrew's suicide letter, the latest in a string of strangers' suicide letters that I had received over the course of several weeks for reasons unknown and that I had begun to suspect, further, that my mailbox has become some kind of supernatural repository for the final thoughts of depressives about to off themselves[?]"
2. "Tell me what's wrong," says Hedy Weiss, "or I'll have my husband, Chicago Tribune theater critic Chris Jones, perform his one-man show, 'Jonesin': Music and Laughter from across the Pond.'"
"All right, all right!" says Olive. "I'll talk."
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"Hello," says Olive, upon picking up the phone.
"Olive, hello. It's Chicago Sun-Times theater critic Hedy Weiss."
"Oh, hi, Aunt Hedy," says Olive. "What's up?"
"I wanted to let you know that I checked on the names you gave me," says Hedy Weiss. "The ones from the suicide letters you've been receiving through the mail."
"Hold on," says Olive. "I am getting a text."
She balances her office phone between her ear and shoulder and reaches for her cell phone, where she sees this message:
ttyl, crool world!
katie m, 1991-now
Great, thinks Olive. Now I am receiving suicide texts.
"Anyway," continues Hedy Weiss, "I checked our archives, and obituaries for each of the names you gave me did indeed appear in the paper."
"So they really are dead?" says Olive.
"Yes," says Hedy Weiss. "Which seals it: you're getting letters from dead people."
"Couldn't somebody just be playing a cruel trick on me?" says Olive.
"That is what I suspected at first," says Hedy Weiss, "but then I was able to verify in some way that this was not the case."
She then explains how she was able to do this.
"Well," says Olive, "I guess that settles that. But what do I do now?"
"You said that the only letter-writer you personally knew was this Andrew person, correct?" says Hedy Weiss.
"Yes, I knew him," says Olive, "but only barely. We shared an office for one day."
"Well, it seems to me your best bet is to find out as much about Andrew as you can," says Hedy Weiss, "and hope that the rest falls into place. Let me know if you need my help. I like this lady-investigative-reporter stuff. It makes me feel like Brenda Starr."
"I do not know who that is," says Olive.
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