S2 Ep 02 - Voicemail: The City of New Orleans

May 24, 2021·23 min·2 clips

Andy explains why he has never told anyone about seeing death countdowns: knowing your death date would make it impossible for anyone to ever feel happy.

The episode is structured as a single extended voicemail left by a caller named Andy for Dr. Malcolm Ryder. Andy opens by establishing his identity: he can see descending countdown numbers on everyone's foreheads indicating when they will die. He reminds Ryder that he was given a black stone necklace and asked to enter someone's dream to record death dates, and accuses Ryder of either not caring or not realizing that this put Andy in the Traveling Salesman's path. The Traveling Salesman appeared at Andy's door and told him to commodify his gift—meaning he wanted to use him as a spy. The Traveling Salesman then sent Andy to New Orleans to track down Charlotte Price, a figure previously mentioned on Ryder's show as a leading practitioner of dream travel. Andy describes weeks of failed attempts to get close to Charlotte, during which crowds would form between them and Charlotte's umbrella would block his line of sight. On the riverbank of the Mississippi at night, Andy comes within arm's length of Charlotte when a gun is pressed to the back of his head. The woman behind the gun orders Andy to watch Charlotte walk away, then marches him to a bar called the Hierophant. The woman sits across from him with a gun hidden under the table. Her death countdown is blurred out—he has never seen this before. She identifies herself as Amelia Ryder, Malcolm's sister, and reveals she teaches at Ravenswood University. She retrieves the black stone necklace Andy had been carrying, noting it is a family relic that Malcolm had no right to give away. Over whiskey, she asks Andy why he never told anyone about his ability. He explains that knowing a death date would either drive the person to live harder or make them miserable forever, and he is not willing to impose that on anyone—or himself. Amelia offers to help him turn his ability off or on at will. Andy considers the offer but cannot trust her given Ryder's past behavior, stumbles drunk out of the bar, and takes the train ticket she slides across the table—a one-way trip from New Orleans to Chicago. Walking home in a rainstorm, Charlotte Price appears silently beside him with an umbrella. Andy notices she has no death countdown, which she explains by saying rivers are creatures made of dreams and his gift only covers beings of flesh and spirit. She describes her work in New Orleans as managing the Mississippi River's dreams to prevent it from waking. She encourages Andy toward Ravenswood without telling him what to do, pointing out that everyone else in his life has manipulated him and she is offering a genuine free choice. Andy boards the train to Chicago that night, arrives at Ravenswood on Mackinac Island, and finds Amelia waiting at the harbor. He enrolls as a student and begins an independent study with her. The voicemail closes with Andy's real concern: over the past month, Amelia has become erratic, disappearing from the island for weeks without explanation. He asks Ryder to help his sister.

As heard by us

A voicemail turns a supernatural favor into a quiet, escalating debt.

Andy’s voicemail to Dr. Malcolm Ryder reads like a confession built around a bad bargain: a necklace of black stones, a dream he did not fully understand, a gift that lets him see the countdowns over people’s lives, and the traveling salesman who turned that gift into leverage.

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Why you'd press play

You want a voicemail that feels like a warning and a confession at once.

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