The mail on her desk Monday morning wasoverwhelming. There were almost two hundred letters there when she arrived, andanother fifty arrived later that day with the postman. As soon as she walkedinto the office, Deanna had pointed proudly at the stack. "See, I told youso," she had said with a smile.
Theresa asked that her calls be put onhold, and she started opening the mail right away. Without exception, they wereresponses to the letter she had published in her column. Most were from women,though a few men wrote in as well, and their uniformity of opinion surprisedher. One by one, she read how much they had been touched by the anonymousletter. Many asked if she knew who the writer was, and a few women suggestedthat if the man was single, they wanted to marry him.
She discovered that almost every Sundayedition across the country had run the column, and the letters came from as faraway as Los Angeles. Six men claimed they had written the letter themselves,and four of them wanted royalties for it — one eventhreatened legal action. But when she examined their handwriting, none of themeven remotely resembled the letter's.
At noon she went to lunch at her favoriteJapanese restaurant, and a couple of people who were dining at other tablesmentioned that they had read the column as well. "My wife taped it to therefrigerator door," one man said, which made Theresa laugh out loud.
By the end of the day she had workedthrough most of the stack, and she was tired. She hadn't worked on her nextcolumn at all, and she felt the pressure building behind her neck, as itusually did when her deadline approached. At five-thirty she started working ona column about Kevin being away and what that was like for her. It was goingbetter than she expected and she was almost finished when her phone rang.
It was the newspaper's receptionist.
"Hey, Theresa, I know you asked me tohold your calls, and I have been," she started. "It wasn't easy, bythe way-you got about sixty calls today. The phone has been ringing off thehook."
"So what's up?"
"This woman keeps calling me. This isthe fifth time she's called today, and she called twice last week. She won'tgive her name, but I recognize the voice by now. She says she's got to talk toyou."
"Can't you just take a message?"
"I've tried that, but she'spersistent. She keeps asking to be put on hold until you have a minute. Shesays she's calling long distance, but that she has to talk to you."
Theresa thought for a moment as she staredat the screen in front of her. Her column was almost done-just another coupleof paragraphs to go.
"Can't you ask for a phone numberwhere I can reach her?"
"No, she won't give me that, either.She's very evasive."
"Do you know what she wants?"
"I don't have any idea. But shesounds coherent-not like a lot of people who've been calling today. One guyasked me to marry him."
Theresa laughed. "Okay, tell her tohold on. I'll be there in a couple of minutes."
"Will do."
"What line is she on?"
"Five."
"Thanks."
Theresa finished the column quickly. Shewould go over it again as soon as she got off the phone. She picked up thereceiver and pressed line five.
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