Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Saint Paul, Minnesota

A patron approached the reference desk at the Minnesota Historical Society Library with a copy of an old death certificate from the library’s collection.

“Excuse me?” he asked the more-than-half-his-age librarian. The man was easily in his seventies and his eyesight just wasn’t what it used to be. “I... um...are you good at reading old-fashioned cursive, miss? I can’t make out the cause of death...”

“Depends on the handwriting,” the librarian replied with a friendly smile. “But I can give it a shot.”

The certificate was for an 80 year-old woman who had died in St. Peter State Hospital in 1916. The cause of death was hard to make out. The librarian hummed and adjusted her glasses. “Well...the first word looks like ‘senility’. Given the woman’s age and where she died, that would make a lot of sense.”

“What about the second word? That one looks like it starts with a ‘D’.”

The librarian’s light blue eyes narrowed in concentration. “That one is more difficult to make out.” She paused. “I want to say ‘dementia’ but that would be redundant with ‘senility’.Plus this,” she pointed to a letter that dipped below the line on the paper. “Looks like it could be a ‘P’ or a ‘Y’... possibly a ‘G’.” She paused again, studying the document. “It could be an antiquated term or some extension of ‘senility’. I could consult with my colleagues if you need to know for certain.”

“Oh, no. This is good enough!” the patron said, sounding quite pleased. “I would have never made out ‘senility’ on my own but I can see it now that you’ve said it. And it does make sense. Thanks!”

“No problem. Just let me know if you need anything else.”

Patron One left and Patron Two stepped up to the desk. “I’m hoping you can help me. I’m looking for some naturalization papers for my great-great-grandfather...”

The librarian, Lauren Baker, was a genealogy specialist and, in her words, knew all the ins and outs of finding dead people. She had undergraduate degrees in history and political science from Columbia and a masters degree in library science from the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign. She attained her job at the Minnesota Historical Society right after graduation and had been in her position for three years. She was active in the American Library Association and other professional groups and was sought after to take part in panels and committees. Highly educated with an established career and quickly gaining a good reputation through professional associations; not bad for a 30-year-old.

Life has a funny way of going to hell right when everything feels like it’s in order and there is nothing but smooth sailing ahead. For Lauren Baker, the trip to hell began at lunch that afternoon as she listened to two library interns discuss, of all things, podcasts.

“So, I finally caught up over the weekend,” one library intern said to another.

“You did!” The other intern leaned across the table, all in with her interest. “Isn’t it just tragic? I had to go back to the beginning to get over all the feels.”

“I know! They both sound so much… happier in the first few episodes.”

“And...” the intern gave her friend a knowing smile. “Any excuse to listen to that voice, am I right?”

“Mmm-hmm....” Both interns started giggling like mad.

Lauren’s eyes bounced back and forth between the interns, munching on rice crackers as they continued talking about the podcast with “that voice”. Finally, her curiosity got the best of her. “Which podcast is it?”

“‘The Black Tapes’!” said Intern #1.

“It’s so creepy!” added Intern #2.

“Creepy?” Lauren enjoyed creepy things. “So, ‘the voice’ is creepy?”

“Oh no!” The interns said in unison, giggling again.

“It’s sexy!”

“Super sexy!”

Lauren chuckled. Interns were so funny. “OK, so who has this ‘super sexy’ voice?”

With hearts in their eyes, they sighed, “Dr. Strand.”

They were too busy giggling yet again to notice the cracker slip from Lauren’s fingers. “Dr…. Strand?”

“Yeah!” said Intern #1.

“Dr. Richard Strand?”

“Yep!” said Intern #2 before diving into a long-winded description of Dr. Strand.

Lauren didn’t need the description.

She knew Richard Strand, though she never called him “Dr. Strand”.

She called him Uncle Richard.

Chapter Text

The rest of the day, for lack of a better word, sucked.

Once she recovered from the shock, Lauren tried to milk information about the show and her uncle’s involvement from the interns to no avail. “Just listen to it!” they said. “We don’t want to spoil it for you!” they said.

And what could she say? “Sorry, no. You see, Dr. Strand is my estranged uncle and I’m just curious about ---” She would never be able to finish her explanation because, based on their fangirling, she would have been mauled alive by the interns; they would know someone with a real-life connection to their podcast crush.

After lunch wasn’t any better. It proved to be a very busy afternoon in the library as patron after patron visited the reference desk. Didn’t they know she was having a small personal crisis? That she needed to do research on this podcast and her uncle’s involvement?  That Not Knowing was eating her alive inside? It was a gorgeous day! They should have been outside! Why the hell were they in the library expecting her to work ?!

Lauren dropped her purse and messenger bag at the door and kicked off her shoes. What. A. Day.

She made her way to her office, flipping on lights as she moved through her apartment, and threw herself in her chair. With a sigh, she wiggled the mouse and the monitor blinked to life. She opened a browser and stared at the search bar.

Was she really going to do this?

Yes. Yes, she was.

Lauren’s fingers flew over the keys. Pacific Northwest Stories .

Open new tab. Strand Institute .

Open new tab. Reddit.

Open new tab. Wikipedia.

Open new tab…

Once she realized she had over a dozen tabs open in her browser, Lauren decided she might as well give in and download the podcast and listen to an episode or two.

Just a couple episodes. Then she should would go do something else and try to process the day.

With no small amount of trepidation, Lauren pressed “play”.  

“Ghosts, poltergeists, spirits, and demons,” a woman narrated. “Is death the end of the road? Or simply a transition to another realm? From the National Radio Alliance and Minnow Beats Whale, it’s The Black Tapes Podcast. I’m Alex Reagan.”

The podcast’s theme song streamed in through her earbuds and Lauren swayed in her chair along with it. She found it instantly catchy. Then, about ten seconds into the song, a distinct voice from Lauren’s past froze her mid chair dance.

“Hello. I’m returning one of eleven calls from somebody named...Alex Reagan? It’s Richard Strand. OK, goodbye.”

*********

Lauren was suddenly a little girl again, attending a family gathering and following her older cousin around like a puppy. Charlie, five years older and her only cousin on the Strand side of the family, was the only other girl in her family at the time. Lauren thought she was the coolest and most fun person ever. She had a memory of sitting at a picnic table, taking a Mom-mandated break to catch her breath and drink something when her uncle sat down beside her.

“Hello, Lauren.”  To Little Lauren, her Uncle Richard’s voice reminded her of a bear. She was never sure why, but it did.

“Hi!” She replied, gasping, as she took a moment to stop sucking down her Capri Sun. Lauren may not have known her Uncle Richard as well as her other uncles, but he seemed nice enough. And it he was Charlie’s dad, so that made him pretty cool in her book.

“Are you….having fun? With Charlie?”

“Yeah! I like playing with Charlie! She’s a lot of fun.” She went back to her beverage.

“Good. Great.” There was a long pause before he continued. “Lauren, Aunt Coralee reminded me this morning that we forgot to send you a gift for your birthday last month.”

“That’s OK!” Lauren sucked on her straw and the silver bag started to collapse on itself. Empty. “Adults are busy an’ they sometimes forget things!”  She sucked on the straw again, harder this time, and was rewarded with a tiny bit of juice.

“Yes… well…” Uncle Richard extracted the completely flattened juice bag from his niece’s hands. The girl was going to pop a blood vessel if she kept forcefully sucking on the straw. “I should have sent you ...something in time for your birthday.”

Lauren felt something pressed into her hand. It was two neatly folded twenty dollar bills.  “Oh, wow!”

“Shh…” Uncle Richard held a finger to his lip and tried to look stern, but Lauren could tell he was trying not to smile. “Maybe your parents could take you shopping for something you’d like.”

“This is so much money!” she whispered in awe. “I could get so many new books!”

Her uncle chuckled. “That sounds like a very good plan.”

********

“You’re talking about Strand, right? Don’t waste your time.”

The mention of her uncle’s name pulled Lauren out of her reverie.

“Of course, I wasn’t talking about Strand. Not yet. I wasn’t talking about anyone in particular but I started to notice that name, Strand, kept coming up.”

“Oh boy…” Lauren sighed. She had a feeling, an almost prickling sensation in the back of her mind, that she was starting down a path from which she wouldn’t be able to turn back.