I Am the Messenger: 7 of Diamonds Summary & Analysis

Because Ed is cowardly and weak (and he knows it), he decides to abandon the mission of the man and his wife for a while. He feels ashamed of this, but he wants to succeed at the other addresses on the card before he undertakes such a difficult mission. Ed decides to go to the second address on the card at the designated time. He sits in the kitchen drinking coffee with his dog and assures himself that the next address must be better than the last.

Ed and his friends play an overly complicated card game of their own invention at Audrey’s house. As they bicker among themselves, Ed observes Audrey and affirms his hopeless love of her. He wonders what would happen if he confessed his feelings to her. She seems frustrated with his wasted potential, but, Ed reasons, she has slept with plenty of other losers. Yet Ed knows he doesn’t just want to sleep with her.

Marv asks Ed what happened after he received the playing card in the mail. Ed says he threw the card away, but he thinks back to how earlier that night, he went to the second address on the card. Through the window, Ed watched the house’s one resident, an elderly woman, eat dinner all alone. Ed could tell just from watching the woman interact with her kitchen appliances that she is kind, but incredibly lonely. Even hours later, Ed still feels transformed by observing her kindness.

Ed is so distracted by his worries about the old woman and whether or not she is okay that he forgets to play his turn in the card game. He makes a deal with himself: if he draws the Ace of Diamonds, he will go help the old woman. He draws that exact card from the deck and smiles to himself. Audrey winks at him, as if she understands what has just happened.

The next day, Ed has put on his nicest clothes and picked up a cake from the bakery. The cashier at the bakery turns out to be Misha, the bank teller from the robbery. She calls Ed a hero, but he feels more like a fool. She tells him she quit the bank job because her boss was sexually harassing her. Ed feels bad for Misha, since she had to quit just because someone else was acting inappropriately.

Ed approaches the old woman’s house and knocks on the door. The woman greets him excitedly by calling him Jimmy and saying she always knew he would come. She smiles and hugs him before inviting him inside for dinner. Ed sits down at the dining room table and he and the woman joke around and reminisce about “old times.” From the dining room table, Ed can see people rushing past outside. He also sees the woman’s ID card, which reveals that her name is Milla.

Milla and Ed sit down for dinner and Milla tells him all about her day. After dinner, Milla asks Ed (whom she keeps addressing as Jimmy) where he has been all this time. The sadness in her eyes as she speaks deeply troubles Ed, before he tells Milla that he has been looking for her. Hearing this makes Milla happy again. Eventually, she says that she should say goodnight. Before Ed leaves, she asks him if she will see him again. Ed answers yes, absolutely. On his walk home after seeing Milla, Ed realizes the card’s message is that he should heal Milla’s loneliness.