The Woman Who Is Always Just Introduced

What it looks like, and what it does

A woman in a slightly out-of-date tweed coat, hand extended, smiling, at the edge of a party. Her name tag peeled and re-stuck. A small black notebook ruled in columns of names and ticks. Behind her a long line of people shaking her hand for the first time.

Attends gatherings in the order they happen. Does not insist. Gives up on no one, and does not mention it.

What is known

Her name is on a thousand name tags in a dozen hands. She remembers everyone she meets. They never remember her. She begins each meeting by introducing herself and is met each time as if for the first.

She keeps a notebook. As of last spring it lists 41,872 introductions. Those who meet her report a sudden warmth and the conviction that they have just met someone they would like to know. A moment later they cannot say who.

What it can do

• Is forgotten in under a minute by everyone she meets
• Remembers everyone she meets, permanently

Where it stops

• Can be remembered only by someone who has been forgotten in the same way
• Her written name is read but not retained

An encounter

Haugen was introduced to the same quiet woman four times by four different staff, and shook her hand each time as if for the first. At the fifth, he looked at his hand. “I think,” he said, “I'm supposed to know you.” She said that it was kind of him to say so, and moved on to meet the caterer.

Nils Haugen, partner, Offices of Haugen & Dahl, Christmas party, An evening in December

What is established, and what is only said

• established: Her notebook, photographed by a colleague at a conference, matches the dates of 211 events in three countries.
• rumor: That she was once recorded as having been remembered by a crowd of three hundred.
• interpretation: Being forgotten may not be something that happens to her. It may be a thing she is doing for them.

Still unresolved

One person has remembered her for longer than a day. He is the only name in her notebook under a different heading.

Where it has been recorded

• Haugen & Dahl (confirmed) — Recorded by Nils Haugen, partner.

Stories about it

• The Woman Who Is Just Introduced (Entity story, 3 min) — A young solicitor at a Fenchurch Street firm is introduced to a woman at every office party, and by the end of each night the whole room has forgotten her name, though they all remember how warmly she shook their hands.
• "How Do You Do, Again" (Grotesque encounter, 4 min) — At the Works Club on Fenchurch Street a man nobody ever remembers is introduced, several times in one evening, to the one person he ought to have known.

Connected entities

• The Quorum — Both are known only by the people present. One is multiplied by attention. The other is subtracted from memory.
• Uncle Verne — Both attend gatherings as strangers: one treated as kin, the other as nobody. Neither has been seen to leave.