Sep 19: Crazy Lady Followup
I know you've all been desperately waiting to find out the results of what the street woman's manifesto contained and just what its writer's background was. . .
International spy?
Member of the resistance?
Plant for a reality TV show?
. . . and the answer is. . .
paranoid schizophrenic!
Dora translated the cover letter for me today -- its words dancing around the page. A bubble on the right said "I am giving this to a foreigner to deliver for me." A strip across the bottom margin read: "woman, 36, yellow top, black trousers." (Since not one of the three women in the conversation wore this combination, I have no idea what that refers to.) The main letter said: "Please deliver this to my father/brother at [a Beijing address] because my neighbors are trying to kill my family, and the ["bad people from the underground" translated Dora] have killed my daugher and I can't talk to the police because the man at the door won't let me into the police station."
The 20-page manifesto itself turns out to be a letter she's trying to get to a lawyer detailing her case against the bad people from the underground.
Despite my doubts about her sanity, I still feel obligated to at least try to get this letter to Beijing. I obviously didn't drop it off while in Beijing, because I wanted Dora to translate it for me first. I told her that perhaps I would hand it off to someone who lived in Beijing, who could deliver it for me.
"You know," she said. "I really wouldn't involve anyone else. This could be a sensitive address, I don't think someone should show up there alone."
"Ok, I could mail it."
"Yes, but the police regularly read our e-mails and text messages. They'd probably open this too. Maybe you should mail it from the States."
"I can do that. Will you write out the address for me?"
". . . mmm. . . let's print it up on a computer. I don't think anyone's handwriting should be on it. And don't put on a return address."
But surely the woman was a paranoid schizophrenic. . .
International spy?
Member of the resistance?
Plant for a reality TV show?
. . . and the answer is. . .
paranoid schizophrenic!
Dora translated the cover letter for me today -- its words dancing around the page. A bubble on the right said "I am giving this to a foreigner to deliver for me." A strip across the bottom margin read: "woman, 36, yellow top, black trousers." (Since not one of the three women in the conversation wore this combination, I have no idea what that refers to.) The main letter said: "Please deliver this to my father/brother at [a Beijing address] because my neighbors are trying to kill my family, and the ["bad people from the underground" translated Dora] have killed my daugher and I can't talk to the police because the man at the door won't let me into the police station."
The 20-page manifesto itself turns out to be a letter she's trying to get to a lawyer detailing her case against the bad people from the underground.
Despite my doubts about her sanity, I still feel obligated to at least try to get this letter to Beijing. I obviously didn't drop it off while in Beijing, because I wanted Dora to translate it for me first. I told her that perhaps I would hand it off to someone who lived in Beijing, who could deliver it for me.
"You know," she said. "I really wouldn't involve anyone else. This could be a sensitive address, I don't think someone should show up there alone."
"Ok, I could mail it."
"Yes, but the police regularly read our e-mails and text messages. They'd probably open this too. Maybe you should mail it from the States."
"I can do that. Will you write out the address for me?"
". . . mmm. . . let's print it up on a computer. I don't think anyone's handwriting should be on it. And don't put on a return address."
But surely the woman was a paranoid schizophrenic. . .
posted by Karen at 12:59 PM
2 Comments:
I can NOT believe that you carried that document. I'm so sorry it wasn't a mathematical proof, or some brillant political/philosophical treatise. So incredibly cool!
And the pictures! Everything looks like it's shrouded in mist. So beautiful!
-Aries
So funny that you thought of it as a mathematical proof-- because that was my pet theory too. The kind of "Einstein was WRONG!" thing I get in the mail with a lot of formulas.
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