WEBVTT - #25 Becky and Jo 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:06.160 Do you remember Do you remember. 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:07.480 When you do you remember? 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:10.119 Do you remember when you once told me that we 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:12.080 were talking about the blues, because you like, you were 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:15.040 saying how you you love the blues? You know, you're 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:19.400 just making you said that you really know. You said 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:21.200 you love the blues, and then you told me that. 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:24.599 I said, oh, who's your favorite blues musician and you 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:33.760 said Jim Belushi. I said, really, there's so many great 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:34.680 like blues. 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:36.479 You're an idiot. 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:37.840 Oh my god. 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:49.600 From Gimblet Media, I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is Heavyweight 0:00:50.360 --> 0:01:09.840 Today's episode, Becky and Joe LA All around me cinematic landmarks, 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:18.399 the Chinese Theater, Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, Sunsets, the Pacific Ocean, 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:23.800 Tony Shaloub, the Observatory from Rebel Without a Cause, and 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:30.640 the Hollywood Sign from the Entourage movie. Fun Fact LA 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:38.520 is what industry insiders call Los Angeles. Hey, Becky, I'm 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.880 in Los Angeles to see Becky. She grew up here. 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:46.000 Her parents work in the film biz. They're producers of 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:51.200 movies that if I named you'd say, I know that movie. 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:54.680 What a nice place. Becky gives me a tour of 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:57.559 the nice place which happens to be your mom's place 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:01.120 because it is a quiet place, a good place to talk. 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:04.840 It's so great the way that all the rooms disconnect, 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:10.000 one to the other, one to the other. I'm in hollyweird. Alright. 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:14.799 There are windows too, overlooking a yard. Oh my god, 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:16.360 are those oranges? 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:17.639 Yes? 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:20.960 The California dream you just like? Open up the window 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:23.960 in the kitchen. On the wall hangs the painting of 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:27.919 a boat on the coffee table sits a pipe? Does 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:30.080 your mom smoke a pipe? 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:30.919 No? 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:37.720 Just a conversation piece, but worth every penny, because as 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:43.720 the tour draws to an end, the conversation begins. The 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:46.960 story all started, Becky says a few months ago, while 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.040 dining at an Italian restaurant with her parents and older 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:50.919 sister Joe. 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.920 We were at my birthday dinner. My whole family was there. 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:55.480 Mom and dad. 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.840 Becky's mom and dad are divorced, so the whole family 0:02:58.960 --> 0:02:59.840 rarely gets together. 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:03.960 Like my parents, they're cordial, but like it's really birthdays. 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:07.440 Their chit chat proceeded along, and that way. Family restaurant 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:11.880 discussions often do a lot of remember that person, remember 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:15.800 this thing, remember that thing. This person was supposed to return, 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:18.240 but never did, and now we don't have that thing 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:21.560 or know that person. It was in this way that 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:24.440 Becky came to mention someone the family hadn't talked about 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:33.880 in years, Letitia. As soon as the name was uttered, 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:36.440 Becky could see the power it still had over her 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:39.160 older sister, Joe, even after so many years. 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:42.240 Becky brought up Leticia. 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:46.640 This is Becky's sister, Joe. For her, the very word 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.280 was like a gut punch. But as she looked around 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:52.440 the table, Joe saw their parents were struggling to even 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:53.200 place the name. 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:58.040 It felt like people were trying to remember Leticia, like 0:03:58.080 --> 0:03:59.320 it was this hazy thing. 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:04.960 Everyone held little snippets. Letitia drove a red car. Letitia 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:09.800 had small hands. Letitia was very beautiful. As the family 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:14.400 batted around half memories, Joe remained quiet. Becky watched the 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:16.720 emotions sweep over her sister's face. 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:21.159 Across the table in this very loud restaurant, I just 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:27.040 got this wave of sadness about Letitia. 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:33.520 Leticia was Becky and Joe's babysitter until one day twenty 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:44.120 years ago, when she suddenly vanished from their lives as 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.760 movie producers. Becky and Joe's parents worked long hours and 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.919 were rarely home, so from the time they were toddlers 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:53.960 until they were young teens, the girls were looked after 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:57.560 by a parade of babysitters, one after the other. 0:04:58.040 --> 0:04:59.960 We had a babysitter named Melissa. 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:01.480 We had a babysitter named Robin. 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:03.599 There was a babysitter named Mae. 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:06.599 We had a babysitter named Candide. 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:08.719 Don't remember too much about Audriana. 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:13.320 Sixteen babysitters in total, sixteen young women lurking in the 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:17.600 background of family photographs, dimly remembered each odd in their 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:18.240 own way. 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:20.680 Helena, she was kind of an asshole. 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:24.839 She ended up falling in love with this exterminator that 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:27.880 came to our apartment when we had fleas. 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:29.799 There was the babysitter who joined a cult. 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:32.279 She just said, now, my name is Mollie. 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:36.640 The babysitter who performed Reichi treatment on Becky. The babysitter 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:38.880 who lied about a death in the family to scam 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:44.599 travel money. Aislyn Aislyn Aislin brought Becky and Joe onto 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.520 the front lawn one day and taught them a ten 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:49.680 year old and a six year old had to put 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:51.640 a condom on a banana. 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:53.920 And let us like pick a flavor of condom. 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.480 I just remember looking over across the lawn and seeing 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.920 my sister, who looked so small to me, tasting a 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:02.840 like grape flavored condom. 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:07.240 Also just going out on the lawn part like, I don't. 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:09.400 Oh, well, did you have a banana tree outside? 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:24.600 Nope? Huh. 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.760 Becky and Joe's parents were always absent, so while the 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.280 caretaking fell to the babysitters. They fed the girls when 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.599 they were hungry, comforted them when they were upset, became 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:38.320 integral to their lives, and then after a couple of 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:41.960 months they usually left. It walloped Joe each. 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:45.640 Time to have all these women come and go and 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:46.840 choose to go. 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:51.480 It kind of felt as though, you know, they were 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:57.279 hired to be our friend, and then we were just 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:02.120 too much, or there was something that was too much 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:07.400 to even make money worth being our friend. 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:11.760 I just really felt like I had no one. 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.800 But then came someone, neither Becky nor Joke and a 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:18.840 recall where Leticia came from. She just showed up one 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:23.000 day as glamorous as a movie star. Joe, ten years 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:24.920 old at the time, was dazzled. 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:28.080 She was everything that I kind of wished I was 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:32.880 in a teenage girl. Her hair was straight and I 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:36.240 wanted to straighten my hair and long nails, and I 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:41.240 bit my nails. She wore spaghetti straps, and she was 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:42.880 like a grown up popular girl. 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:50.680 And what set her apart was how she made the 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:53.280 girls feel like they were friends. She brought them to 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:55.360 her home to meet her mom. She took them to 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:57.360 the beach and to the mall and taught them how 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:01.960 to apply lip gloss. Letitia seemed impossibly cool. Becky and 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.000 Joe remember her showing up late one time and explaining 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:08.360 that she just crashed into a cop car. The girls 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:11.920 were in awe. Even her music was cool. There was 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.560 one song in particular that she loved to play, that. 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:17.560 Aliyah song are you that somebody with the baby sample 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:17.880 in it? 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:20.800 You know that like dirty so here we go? You 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:22.040 know that song? 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:23.560 Yeah? 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.040 I don't know it. I make a mental note to 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:29.960 sign up for Spotify to listen to the song, just 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:31.880 as soon as I figure out how to connect to 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:33.000 the hotel Wi Fi. 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.600 Letitia choreographed this dance for us. 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:38.960 Just like this weird thing that we would like do 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:40.160 with our hands. 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:43.839 In the car we were seated. Me and Becky still 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:45.920 remember it and we can do it like on. 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.480 Cue, driving in the car listening to that song and 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:54.000 doing that dance, feeling cool and close to both of them. 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:56.520 Kind of felt like I was like riding along with 0:08:56.559 --> 0:09:02.319 like two older, cooler girls. I always idolized my sister, yeah, 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:02.720 a lot. 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.920 So she was like your older sister's older sister kind of. 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.400 Yeah. 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:15.560 Letitia would just like lie on Joe's bed with her 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.040 like kind of like on her stomach like pillow, talking 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:23.720 sharing secrets or something. I think that Letitia genuinely, like 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:25.000 really loved my sister. 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:30.320 Letitia made them feel like she'd be sticking around, but 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:33.600 in the end, she only stayed a couple months, and 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:37.719 of all the departures of all their babysitters, Letitia's was 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:41.560 the most brutally abrupt. The last day Becky and Joe 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.640 ever saw Letitia, they were all hanging out in the kitchen, 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.079 and when thinking about what drove Letitia away, this is 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:51.439 the moment Joe always returns to. It was after school 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:53.480 and Letitia was making her a smoothie. 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:58.240 I accidentally I knocked over the smoothie. I was just 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:03.400 so excitable around her and she kind of dropped her 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:07.240 knees and I tried to help her pick it up, 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.080 and she seemed pissed, and she was like, it's okay, 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:10.600 I got it. 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:15.520 For the rest of the day, Letitia seemed distant. The 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:19.400 next afternoon, as always, Becky and Joe waited for Letitia 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:21.760 to pick them up outside their elementary school. 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:26.000 We just didn't see her car and we were waiting. 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:28.160 She was sometimes late. 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:31.040 You were like, oh, it's okay, Like five minutes, she's 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:31.760 just really late. 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.520 Five minutes turned to ten, turned to half an hour. 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:38.840 Joe took a seat on the grass, and then so 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:44.280 did Becky. Other cars came and went an hour, an 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:49.760 hour and a half. As the school emptied out, it 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:51.720 took on a far away, ghostly quality. 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:59.679 I remember the light changing, also Becky's face changing and 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:03.520 looking more to me. Becky's face to me was a 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:06.960 huge emotional compass because she was so much younger than me. 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:12.920 Joe's first impulse in scary, uncharted situations was to reassure 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:16.960 herself by reassuring her sister. She'd explain to Becky what 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:19.440 was going on or tell her things would be okay. 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:22.360 But sitting on the front lawn of their empty school. 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:25.560 As night approached, Joe wasn't sure things would be okay. 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:28.720 I imagine there was nothing more to do than hold 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:29.800 her little sister's hand. 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:34.720 Two or three hours went by, and we were like 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:37.520 sitting on the grass, like both of us just crying. 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:43.240 Then like it really setting in that like she's not coming. 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:51.240 I remember thinking too, like maybe she died. I think 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:53.880 I knew by her not coming to pick us up, 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:57.559 that like she was gone, like she was not going 0:11:57.600 --> 0:11:59.599 to be in our life anymore. 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:04.800 And she wasn't. After waiting several hours, the girls phoned 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.480 their mom, who instructed them to walk to a nearby 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:11.760 friend's house. Maybe in the end, Letitia hadn't loved them, 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:22.840 maybe it was just a job. Letitia was gone without explanation, 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:25.880 but Joe knew it had to be because of that smoothie. 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:29.840 Whatever the case, By the very next day, Letitia had 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:33.400 been replaced Becky and Joe's mom had worked to get 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:33.880 back to. 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:37.760 The problem was solved the way our parents looked at it, 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:42.080 which was, you know, they're okay, they have supervision. 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:47.679 But I was just so heartbroken. 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.360 Even all these years later, when Joe talks about it, 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:56.040 it's in the language of a first breakup. Letitia's disappearance 0:12:56.160 --> 0:13:00.520 even comes up in therapy with each new relationships, biggest 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:03.679 fear is that the person she's with might suddenly disappear, 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:09.040 just like Leticia did. Since that family dinner, Becky hasn't 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:11.439 been able to forget the sadness on her sister's face, 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:14.960 But whenever Becky prods her about it, Joe brushes it 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:18.959 off or changes the subject. But Becky knows her sister, 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:23.280 and she can tell she's hurting, and she wants to help. 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:29.079 As the older sister, Joe took care of Becky. Becky's 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:31.920 now twenty seven and Joe is thirty. She's still the 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:34.880 older sister, but Becky feels the time has come for 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:38.000 her to take care of Joe. If Leticia's out there, 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:42.240 Becky wants to find her and ask what happened that day? 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:44.280 I want to talk to her. 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:12.440 Becky doesn't know where Leticia came from or where she 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.600 might have gone. She's not even sure of Leticia's last name, 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:24.680 which is why Becky has chosen to wade into that 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:28.960 swamp of collective memory known as the family storage Unit. 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:29.680 I feel like. 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.480 There's only so much time I can spend in here, 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:35.040 just like because I know how many rats. 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:35.280 Are in here. 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.280 The storage unit isn't lit, and Becky forgot her flashlight 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:41.880 at home, so she uses the light on her phone 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.840 to scope out the room. Inside her boxes piled atop 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:49.560 each other, containing years and years worth of old school assignments, 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:54.480 VHS tapes, and birthday cards from barely remembered family friends you. 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.360 Just made up in here that's like twenty years old. 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:00.920 She's here to find Joe's childhood address book. When Joe 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:04.000 was a kid, the way that some people might collect autographs, 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:07.600 she collected addresses, so every time she met someone new, 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:10.440 Joe would scrawl their address into a little book with 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:13.680 a hologram dog on the cover. Becky is hoping the 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:17.840 book contains Letitia's full name and an address, any clues 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:24.200 to help agin the search everyway. While digging around in 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.280 the dim light, Becky finds one of Joe's old journals 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:30.920 with entries dated from around the time of Letitia. She 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.400 sits down in the child sized chair she used to 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:36.560 use in her family's old living room and realizes a 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:40.960 dream long held by little sisters everywhere. With Joe's permission, 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:44.440 she opens her older sister's diary and explores the once 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:46.320 carefully guarded pages. 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:47.920 The summer twenty first, two thousand. 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:51.600 Dear we Both, Joe named her diary Webo, after the 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:53.200 robot in flubber. 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:55.800 Bush is our new president they told us about a 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:58.960 week ago. Anyways, I have a totally new crush. It's 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:00.960 Justin Timberly. He is so hot. 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:06.960 I love him. 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:11.280 She declares on December twenty third, nineteen ninety nine, that 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:14.040 her relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio is over. 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:15.880 She says, ps. 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.280 Leo is over too. He is a part in my 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:19.440 French gay Lord. 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:23.320 It is the new Jojo and I'm a single exclamation point. 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:27.240 With Leo and Justin, Joe created a fantasy of the 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:31.000 perfect boyfriend, and as Becky reads further, she wonders if 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:34.800 with Letitia, Joe had created a fantasy of the perfect mom, 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:37.240 a mother who would always be around for her. 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:41.040 Dear Weebo, mom is going away tomorrow. I can't believe it. 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:41.920 Again. 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:45.040 For four days, which is usually extended to six days, 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.160 she never thinks about time with her family. I love 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:52.240 her so much, and she's mostly away from me. Work, work, work, 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:55.160 And every Saturday night she goes out with my dad. 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:57.920 I just spend the scraps of time with her that 0:16:57.960 --> 0:16:58.480 I have. 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:02.760 Fuck so sad. 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.000 Alone in the dim light of the storage unit, Becky 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:26.520 puts the journal down and continues her search, but after 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.760 digging around for a couple hours, she gives up. She 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:39.520 can't find the address book. It seemed like the storage 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.359 unit had been a dead end, but a few days later, 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:45.840 Becky phones with some good news. She'd taken Joe's journal 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.679 home to keep searching for clues, and she found some. 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:49.960 There are a. 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.680 Couple entries that mentioned Leticia, and the. 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:56.320 First mention of Leticia is from the day she showed up, 0:17:56.720 --> 0:17:59.240 which was also the day the previous babysitter left. 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.800 Dear wee Bo. Today I found out some bad news. 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:07.320 Sylvia is leaving. I'm trying not to make a big 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:09.520 deal about it because I don't want to make Sylvia 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:14.159 feel guilty. The new babysitter is Letitia. She's really nice 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:23.920 and she's nineteen years old. August third, nineteen ninety eight. 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.400 Letitia and I have found one thing in common. We're 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:38.200 planning a Leo Knight. We both love Leonardo DiCaprio, love Joe. 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:41.000 And what else do you have? 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:47.560 There there's September sixth, nineteen ninety eight. Dear wee bo, 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:52.720 Today Letitia's coming to babysit. I love Letitia. She's the best. 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.520 She's one of those babysitters that actually does stuff with you, 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:58.760 like For one, she will take you to the pier. 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:02.280 Two she goes on the rides. A lot of my 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:06.040 old babysitters weaseled themselves off the rides, but not Letitia. 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:08.400 She rocks. She's coming at one. 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:15.879 But only a few weeks later, Letitia was gone, and 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.280 for Joe her disappearance was so painful that it led 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:21.800 into the departures of the babysitters that followed. 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:26.560 Dear wee bo, a'sln and Hillary are leaving. I don't 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.040 want them to go, while at least they told us, 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:34.320 unlike Letitia, we need to find a babysitter that will 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:38.720 actually stay. I gotta go to school. I love you, Joey. 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:44.840 And then, in a diary entry written months after Letitia's disappearance, 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:48.840 Becky discovers proof that her sister's heartbreak went beyond merely 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:53.399 writing about Leticia. She was also writing to Letitia. The 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:56.840 substance of Joe's letters was always the same, I miss 0:19:56.880 --> 0:19:58.359 you and I'm sorry. 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:02.440 I wrote a letter to Letitia. It says I still 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:05.560 love you, and today I got a letter in the mail, 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:09.080 but it turned out to be an advertisement. I really 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:10.280 want to track her down. 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:15.359 All told, Joe wrote Letitia about a half a dozen letters. 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:20.679 Letitia ever responded, and now twenty years later, it's Becky 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:28.080 who wants to track her down. According to Joe's diary, 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:31.399 Letitia was nineteen and attending a nearby college when she 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.720 became their babysitter, so present day, Letitia would now be 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:38.439 forty years old and possibly an alumna of the local college. 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:42.520 Armed with this, I start dialing Letitia's by the dozens. 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:47.320 An excellent dialer, I dial with confidence, leaving dozens of 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:50.439 messages but receiving no responses. 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:55.879 Until Yeah, I just received a call from this number. 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:59.880 Oh hi, yeah, I was looking for Letitia. 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:04.760 What what is this called? Pertaining too well? 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:05.439 I uh. 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:08.920 While strong at the dialing part, my weakness has always 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:12.200 been the part that comes immediately after. There's a couple 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:17.680 of people who wanted to reconnect. She was a part 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:20.600 of their past. Is this the right phone number? 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:21.600 Or sorry? 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:23.439 Who would that be? Who would that be? 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:28.200 She was their babysitter in the late nineties. 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:48.119 Oh okay, that's interesting. Okay, I will pass the message along. 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:53.600 That's great. So this this, this is Letitia's number. 0:21:56.600 --> 0:22:01.000 No, it's not, it's my number. 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:06.480 At any rate, if you're in touch with her or 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:07.439 what have you, you know, she. 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:08.520 Could give me a call. 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:16.679 Yeah, okay, okay, thank you, bye bye. Was the hedgy 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:20.280 owl man going to deliver my message to Letitia? Or 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:23.639 was he merely some basement apartment bachelor taking a break 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:26.359 from opening cans of chili to have a little fun 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:31.000 at my expense Because I have no other leads. I wait, 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:35.560 and then one afternoon a week later, I get a 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:40.119 call back. So once again I unholster my trustee dialing 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:48.320 finger and get ready to deliver some news. Hey, Joe, Hey, Becky. Hi, 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:55.560 So I have some news to share. I found Leticia. 0:22:56.680 --> 0:22:58.520 Holy s what the fuck? 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:01.119 Holy shit balls? 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:09.080 After the break, the holiest shitball of all Letitia. 0:23:22.560 --> 0:23:23.560 Nice to see. 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:26.439 We've arranged meat at a place near Letitia's house to 0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:29.760 talk about what happened that day long ago. It turns 0:23:29.800 --> 0:23:32.400 out that Letitia still lives in the same neighborhood where 0:23:32.440 --> 0:23:35.560 she used to babysit Becky and Joe. The sisters are 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:39.320 the first to arrive, so it's just supposed to be 0:23:39.320 --> 0:23:42.160 coming soon. Do you want to sit there? 0:23:42.760 --> 0:23:43.040 Sure? 0:23:43.560 --> 0:23:44.520 And because I thought I. 0:23:44.440 --> 0:23:47.840 Would sit here, And after detailing my elaborate seating chart, 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:55.080 I offer refreshments. I have some water and glasses for 0:23:55.240 --> 0:23:59.480 the water. We fall into a nervous quiet. Joe swimming 0:23:59.520 --> 0:24:02.720 in decades old emotions seems especially unsettled. 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:06.560 When you said you found her, I was like, wait, 0:24:06.880 --> 0:24:10.879 I don't know this person at all. It's so like 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:13.440 the last time I saw her was the last time 0:24:13.720 --> 0:24:16.600 I saw her, Like, it's so weird. 0:24:16.960 --> 0:24:32.800 Like And then we wait and wait and wait. Becky 0:24:32.800 --> 0:24:35.480 and Joe sit on the couch, side by side, listening 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:38.959 to the cars pass by. Five minutes turns to ten minutes, 0:24:39.359 --> 0:24:44.280 ten to fifteen, until finally a knock at the door. 0:24:51.000 --> 0:24:51.280 Hello. 0:24:52.680 --> 0:24:55.640 Letitia has a warm smile and blonde highlights in her hair. 0:24:56.960 --> 0:24:57.879 Oh, it's nice to meet you. 0:24:57.880 --> 0:25:01.359 Come on in, Joe are here. Oh great. 0:25:03.680 --> 0:25:06.160 Before the last time I saw you, you were just kids. 0:25:06.600 --> 0:25:09.359 As per my seating arrangement, Becky and Joe are on 0:25:09.400 --> 0:25:13.800 the couch. Leticia sits down on the chair opposite them, 0:25:13.880 --> 0:25:17.560 So I maybe we can. I don't know how to 0:25:17.280 --> 0:25:20.480 to start exactly, but maybe maybe what with all my 0:25:20.560 --> 0:25:23.800 planning out the seating arrangement, which so far seems to 0:25:23.840 --> 0:25:26.479 be working like a charm, I hadn't come up with 0:25:26.520 --> 0:25:30.760 a plan for how to actually begin a babysitter baby sadded, reunion. 0:25:31.560 --> 0:25:34.439 So I figure we should begin at the beginning with 0:25:34.520 --> 0:25:36.960 how Letitia came to be hired in the first place. 0:25:37.320 --> 0:25:39.879 Do you remember, like there being an interview. Do you 0:25:39.920 --> 0:25:41.720 remember initial impressions of. 0:25:44.040 --> 0:25:44.639 So I think I. 0:25:44.760 --> 0:25:48.200 Found a posting maybe on Craigslist. I want to say 0:25:48.320 --> 0:25:52.200 I did. I interviewed with your mom. 0:25:51.280 --> 0:25:53.720 You know, but didn't come up in the interview, Letitia says, 0:25:54.240 --> 0:25:56.679 is how big the job would be. It wasn't just 0:25:56.720 --> 0:25:59.199 looking after Becky and Joe. She also had to do 0:25:59.240 --> 0:26:03.280 the cooking and house cleaning. Letitia was barely out of 0:26:03.320 --> 0:26:06.520 high school and clearly in over her head. It was 0:26:06.520 --> 0:26:08.840