Medium

Arianna: "dear dad,

"as I sit down to write this, I'm thinking about you and me.

"there's one time in particular

"that I can't get out of my head.

"I took our housekeeper's matches

"and I set the leaves in the backyard on fire.

"then I tried to blame her.

"you knew better, of course.

"and you used it as an opportunity to teach me

"the difference between lying and being a liar.

"I learned that day that I could say anything to you,

"and that whatever we had to deal with,

"your love for me would never go away.

"I guess that's why I'm writing this to you.

"I know you and mom are worried about me.

"I know you think I'm not handling college well,

"that I'm adrift.

"and I guess you're both right.

But it's a little more complicated than that."

Mmm.

You need anything?

Your mom wasn't sure that you would have

Enough money left after buying your books.

No, I'm fine, dad.

"I'm so glad you came all the way out to see me.

"I know you're busy.

"and I wanted to talk to you, really talk to you,

"but I just couldn't.

"that's my fault, dad, not yours.

"so I'm going to say everything now.

"I know that's not fair.

"but please don't be too mad at me.

"this is something I've been thinking about doing

"for a while now.

"and I want you to know

That it would have happened no matter what."

"I've been so confused.

And this thing, it's..."

Arianna?

"...Like a lighthouse in the middle of all that.

"it's so easy to steer toward,

"that I feel like it's where I have to go.

"the first thing I want to say is that I'm sorry.

"I hope that, since this is the last time

"I'm going to talk to you, I can give you what you need

"to come to terms with what I've done.

"you're my dear dad.

I can say anything to you, right, dad?"

Hello?

Ari!

Arianna?

Departure time is t-minus five minutes.

If you're not on the train,

You're going to be left at the station.

Can you help?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks.

Marie, honey, you got five minutes.

I just want to finish this chapter.

Well, you can finish in the car.

Hey, is this a library book?

Where'd you get this?

We haven't been to the library in ages.

It was in my closet.

Well, when was it due?

I don't know. I didn't take it out.

Well, who did?

Who do you think?

Well, somebody must have cleaned the room

And just stuck it in the closet.

Somebody?

Bridge, that isn't your book.

It belongs to the library.

Yeah, well, I guess I forgot they were in there.

"they?"

How many have you got in there?

I don't know.

I mean, they let you check out seven at a time.

Bridgette, you have seven overdue books in your closet?

You're not supposed to take the library books,

You're supposed to bring them back.

Well, it's too late now.

I mean, if I brought them back,

Then they would send me to jail or something.

They're not going to send you to jail.

They're going to charge you a fine.

I'm guessing it's going to be big.

My hunch is your allowance is going straight to

The public library for the next few months.

But library books are supposed to be free.

They are free, as long as you play by the rules.

After school today, I want you to walk over there

And return those books.

Fine.

I was reading that!

Well, too bad.

Go check it out at the library.

Hello.

Devalos: Morning.

Um, sorry to bother you so early.

Oh, no, no, no.

It's no bother, mr. District attorney.

I was wondering if I could ask a favor.

Wondering if there was any way I could get you to drop by

My house on your way to work this morning,

Say around 9:00?

Course. Is everything all right?

Nothing that can't hold until 9:00.

Nice hair.

Nice glasses.

As you both know, our daughter arianna took her own life

During her sophomore year of college.

Today is the anniversary of the day she died,

The day I found her.

Losing a child...

Is always a nightmare for any parent.

For us, I think it's been especially difficult.

Arianna didn't leave a note.

She never told us why.

Nothing at all?

She never communicated with either one of you?

Devalos: Lily went out to get the newspaper,

And saw that the flag was up on the mailbox.

And when she looked inside,

She found this.

Oh, no.

This is terrible.

I'm so sorry.

Devalos: I certainly made my share of enemies over the years.

Put plenty of bad people in prison,

Even received death threats,

But never anything like this.

Never anything involving my family.

Would you please excuse me?

You know, this is going to sound crazy.

I think I saw the man who did this.

What are you talking about?

I saw a man putting something in your mailbox.

I mean, I didn't really see it, and he wasn't really there,

But I didn't realize that at the time.

I actually got a pretty good look at him.

He was young, maybe 30.

Caucasian, tall, thin.

And he was wearing these glasses.

Kind of... Black, vintage frames.

Ring any bells?

No, I don't think so.

Okay, I'll tell you what--

I'm going to canvass the neighborhood,

See if anyone else saw this guy.

I'm also going to have someone at the station

Put together a file of all your cases.

A mug-book of everyone you've tried.

If the guy who left this really is someone you put away,

Then, well, hopefully, allison will recognize him.

Young lady, these books are very late.

You've had them for more than a year now.

I know.

I, uh, guess I just kind of lost track of them.

I'm sorry.

But they were really good.

Glad you thought so.

Now maybe some other children can enjoy them, too.

I'm afraid we've already forwarded these to collections.

You owe the retail cost of the books.

Which comes out to $92.18.

Ninety-two dollars?!

I'm just a kid!

Where am I supposed to get $92?

Uh, you're not going to call the police, are you?

Am I going to get arrested?

What about asking your parents?

No. I don't want to do that.

They're already really mad at me.

I might have an idea.

Ariel: You're working

At the library?

Why are you so surprised?

I don't know.

It just seems odd

That someone would depend on you to do anything.

Hey, I'm dependable.

And besides, they've got books laying around

All over the place in there.

So this is good.

I'm helping them with their problem,

And instead of paying me, they're paying off the fines.

Joe: It sounds like a pretty good

Solution to me.

Honey, don't eat any ice cream before dinner.

Well, when are we going to eat?

I'm hungry.

I don't know.

That's a good question. Where's your mom?

She's been in her room

For the past couple hours.

Hey, you hungry?

Should I order some pizzas?

No, no; we have some leftovers in the fridge

I was going to heat up.

I'm sorry, I got so caught up