aurelia received a letter in the mail. it stood out from the junk mail by being addressed by hand.
it had no return address.
she opened it.
it read, you have an appointment with doctor carter on wednesday, june 16, at 3 pm. it gave dr carter’s address, which was on the next street over from a second hand clothing store aurelia often patronized. it also listed a phone number and an e-mail address.
aurelia had never heard of dr carter. she had had a checkup with her own regular doctor the month before, and the doctor had not referred her to anyone, or indicated that she needed any kind of treatments or visits to specialists.
aurelia called the number listed in the letter. she immediately got a message to leave a message. she decided not to leave one. as it happened, wednesday was an afternoon off for her - she had an elaborately staggered schedule in her job as a waitress - and she decided to just drop by dr carters office and explain that there had been some kind of mistake. it was a saturday when she received the letter, so wednesday was only four days away.
but except when she was busy at work, aurelia found that she could not get the strange letter out of her mind. she wished she had tried to get through to a person on the phone, although she realized how unlikely success would have been.
she sent an e-mail, but as she expected, got no reply.
she decided to go through with the visit. it did not occur to her, as it might have to some people, that she might be kidnapped or murdered.
it did occur to her that she might be charged for the visit, and one reason she was going was to make sure that she was not. if she did not show up, they might try to charge her some ridiculous fee for missing the appointment!
wednesday afternoon arrived, and aurelia arrived at the address in the letter. it was an old brick office building. the front door was unlocked and she entered. there was no security guard inside. a directory beside the single elevator showed dr carter’s office to be on the fourth floor, which she had already guessed by the office number, 404.
aurelia knocked on the door of number 404 and entered. there was a small reception area but nobody at the desk.
a man suddenly appeared. aurelia assumed he was dr carter. he was younger than she had expected, with curly hair, a little mustache, and he looked a bit nervous.
“come in, aurelia, come in, “ the man said. “we have been expecting you.” even though she was five minutes early.
“are you dr carter?” aurelia asked.
“yes, of course, who did you think i was? “
“one question, please, before we go on,” said aurelia. “how much is this going to cost?”
“oh, your employer is paying. you don’t have to concern yourself.”
“mrs johnson’s restaurants is paying?”
“of course, why wouldn’t they? but please come in , your father is here, we have had a nice talk.”
her father? aurelia had not seen or talked to her father in years, and had forgotten all about him.
aurelia followed dr carter down a narrow corridor behind the reception area and into a small bare office. there was no desk, just a computer station and what looked like a dentist’s chair.
a man was seated in the office, in a low chair beside the computer station. he was definitely not aurelia’s father.
aurelia’s father had been short and stocky, with five o’clock shadow, with nothing much to say and a permanently surly expression, although he was not at all violent and had almost no energy of any kind.
the man seated in the office was tall and thin and pale and had glasses with small thick lenses. he wore a sports jacket with leather elbow patches. he was definitely not the man aurelia had thought was her father.
what was this about? was this guy supposed to be her real father? and if he was, so what?
“tom here has been telling me all about you,“ dr carter said, as he took a seat himself at the computer.
there was no place for aurelia to sit, except the dentist’s chair or on the floor, so she remained standing.
“i have never seen this gentleman before,” said aurelia, “and my father’s name wasn’t tom.”
“tom” ignored this, and without saying hello to aurelia or introducing himself, launched into what seemed a continuation of a story he had been telling dr carter. something about aurelia’s being taken to the beach - or maybe it was some kind of county fair or a family picnic - where she, aurelia, had amazed the assembled listeners with her ability to - to do something, aurelia could not really understand what - even though she was only - some age or other, aurelia did not catch the number, as tom talked rapidly, and made jerky little movements as he talked.
dr carter listened attentively to tom, never taking his eyes off his face, and nodding encouragement, particularly at the most incomprehensible parts of his disjointed narrative.
“this is ridiculous,” aurelia attempted to interrupt tom. “i have had enough.” and she turned to go.
dr carter stood up suddenly. “i don’t think you want to leave just yet, aurelia,” he said. “i think you might want to hear what tom has to say.”
“not really.” aurelia opened the door behind her.
“you’ll be sorry,” the doctor said. “you should stay.”
for the first time aurelia felt a twinge of fear. was there anybody else, she wondered, in the whole building? she had not seen any sign of anybody. would anybody hear her if she screamed for help?
but neither the doctor nor tom followed her as she made her way down the corridor, through the reception center, and back to the elevator.
the elevator was still on the fourth floor and she took it down to the lobby and made it safely to the street.
what was that all about? aurelia laughed out loud, happy to be in the sunny street, and a couple of teenaged boys walking by turned and stared at her.
that was weird, thought aurelia, but she knew, from the internet and reading newspapers, that far weirder things happened to people every day.
she thought she might send her story to some website - to be included in something like “31 weird creepy things that happened to real people”. but it probably was not strange enough.
she went shopping. shopping was her favorite thing to do.
the next morning aurelia did not show up for work at mrs johnson’s restaurant. darlene, the manager, called and texted and e-mailed her but did not receive any response.
when she did not show up or respond to messages the next day, she was sent a letter that she was fired, and the letter enclosed a check for the wages she was owed. employees often quit suddenly, and mrs johnsons restaurant chain did not waste time or energy on them.
when aurelia did not pay her rent on the first of the month, the manager of her apartment building found her room empty. the letter from mrs johnson’s with the enclosed check was later found in her post office box along with forty-five pieces of junk mail.
