-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
/
page0033.mm
33 lines (33 loc) · 1.79 KB
/
page0033.mm
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
<p>Page 33.</p>
<p>It was five weeks before I heard from Lola Banks. I tried to call
her, many times. But the hospital was not an authorized number, so I
had to ask reception to connect me, and whenever they did, it rang
out. I began to suspect that reception was being deliberately
obstructive. Finally I jury-rigged a packet-disguised VoIP connection
from my workstation, and sure enough, when I did that, the hospital
switch answered right away.</p>
<p>“Charlie!” said Lola. She sounded robotic, because my
computer was untangling her audio from a data stream that otherwise
looked like a really long joke email. But there was unmistakable
delight in her voice, and I felt relief. It had been a month and she
hadn’t called <em>me</em>; I’d started thinking I must have
kissed her the wrong way, or she’d changed her mind, or
something. I don’t know. “I’ve been calling and
calling!”</p>
<p>“You have?”</p>
<p>“Yes! They always tell me you’re busy and I have to leave
a message.”</p>
<p>“Oh,” I said. “That’s weird.”</p>
<p>“And I called your home, but your answering machine filled up.
Are you screening?”</p>
<p>“No. I just haven’t been home.”</p>
<p>“Since when?”</p>
<p>I had to think about this. “March.”</p>
<p>There was silence. “I think you need to get out of there,
Charlie.”</p>
<p>“Why?” I went to scratch my cheek and missed. I looked at
my hand. I wasn’t wearing my index finger, that was why.</p>
<p>“I just think it would be a good idea.”</p>
<p>“Well... okay.”</p>
<p>“I’m going to give you an address,” Lola said, and
I reached for a pen, with the hand that had fingers.</p>