She did not, though that's why she refused to see the narrator on that day. It says that it will leave her alone if she does what it asks - that is, if she “spreads the word.” She had received a floppy disc with one file on it in the mail a week after that fateful day in 1992, you see, and ever since then, she has struggled with whether or not she can or should “spread the word.” For 15 years, she did not - but on the day that the narrator was to conduct the interview, she had originally planned to pass the disk on. Ever since she first stumbled upon the image, she writes, it has haunted her, coming to her in her dreams every single night. The following year, Mary sends the narrator a lengthy email both apologizing for the failed interview and explaining her experience with smile.jpg. The narrator sits and listens outside the door while Mary’s husband attempts to calm her down. The interview does not go as planned: When the narrator arrives at her home, they find her barricaded in her bedroom, spouting terrified-sounding nonsense from behind the door. It’s unknown who the other 399 people are, but the narrator posits that they have either remained anonymous or are dead. Mary, who had been a sysop for a Chicago-based BBS in 1992, is one of about 400 people who saw the image when it first appeared on the Internet she is also the only one ever to speak about it. Mary allegedly had experience with a web-based urban legend known as “smile.jpg,” or “Smile Dog” - an image, it's said, that can cause insanity simply by viewing it and that the narrator is investigating for a college newspaper story. The narrator is a young writer, and the events involve their (the narrator’s gender is never revealed) attempt to interview a woman identified only as Mary E.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |