Ellen Medlar sits in her kitchen reading her mail. She slits open an envelope addressed in her mother's hand. Inside are newspaper clippings, carefully cut, some with handwritten notes beside the print. Since Mr. Medlar's illness, Mrs. Medlar rarely writes her daughter a letter. Instead, she clips articles from The Atlanta Journal and jots on the envelope, "Just enclosures, but lots of love!"

Ellen unfolds a short article headlined "Hepatitis Linked to High School Clinic." The high school isn't the private academy Ellen attended. Hepatitis? No one Ellen knows either has hepatitis or has ever had it.(Her father's disease is arteriosclerosis.) She can't imagine why something on this subject has been sent to her, yet her mother hasn't felt any marginal comment necessary.

Then she reads: "The outbreak has been traced to a needle used to pierce the ears of several students."