Читаем Fall and Rise полностью

“Maybe I should say the rest quickly before you hang up or we get cut off, and you won’t, will you? You’ve every reason to, but this was my last dime. I even had to borrow it — or beg for it, really — but I suppose I could always borrow or beg another one. It’s probably not that mortifying to do after the first time, though later it gets, fewer people to borrow or beg from and less inclined they are to stop. So before we do get cut off, and my tried-and-true mental timeclock says we’re long overdue, maybe I could give you my number here and you could call back. It’s kind of a long story why I’m asking to come by and, just for a few hours till daybreak when my landlady gets up and I can get my duplicate keys, sleep on your floor.”

“The answer’s no, naturally, to any coming by tonight. If you just want to tell the story why you think you have to come by, you can’t make it short?”

“I could but not effectively. But I probably couldn’t because — oh shit…excuse me, but my head just then.”

“What, hangover or something like that already?”

“Hurts, from being hit in the head before. On the head. I was. With a phone receiver but one cut off. I don’t mean to be confusing. I wasn’t cut off, on the phone, but the receiver was, from the phone.”

“If it’s that bad, go to a hospital.”

“It’s not. A scratch on top and a bump, and now a little dizziness and pain, which probably accounts for my sporadic disoriented tongue, though I got that out all right with the words I wanted. And I couldn’t begin to tell it — from before — because our five minutes are more than up. And the phone operators who cut in these days to ask for another coin — well, you can’t speak to them as people, you know, since their voices aren’t even recorded anymore, much less real or alive. They’re — they come from some new kind of computerized phonetic machine that creates operator voices or what we’ve been used to, and with the right regional inflections for whatever region, to respond to the multivarious situations they’ve traditionally had to deal with on the phone, though I’m sure the machine’s tinkered with periodically to let new situations in. You want a real live operator’s voice you have to dial Operator, and I heard that soon — ooh, wait. I’m a little lost there — my head again, which might be worse off than I thought. I wish I could sit. And lost you a little there also, I think.”

“Not if I got you right. I’m sure — but you all right?”

“Yes.”

“Anyway, my experience has been that if they don’t get you once your five minutes are up it’s because of some telephonic malfunction and not generosity on the company’s or any operator’s part, and you can talk on that dime long as you like. But do me a favor — get to a hospital immediately for that head?”

“Why? They’ll tell me I’ve a hairline fracture at the most and to go home and rest and that’s what I can’t do now. And let’s not chance the operator coming in. Once one does I won’t have time to give you my number, so please take it now.”

“Why didn’t you call Diana?”

“I did but nobody’s in or answering. And the five other friends in the city I could, who either didn’t answer or his answering machine did. With that one I gave the number of the booth phone I was calling from, but have since moved on. My mother I couldn’t — though I actually could. She’d forgive me for anything, as good mothers do. But I didn’t want to, as she lives alone, would get scared, doesn’t sleep well — only a few hours a day and usually at this hour, and I didn’t want to wake her.”

“No one else? No old women friends, a brother, sister, aunt who sleeps well?”

“Out of town or living out of town or impossible for the women friends.”

“Even so, there’d have to be twenty, fifty people to call before me, and a locksmith.”

“Locksmith I already tried, but I lost my wallet tonight, have no cash at home and I don’t have a check account.”

“Who doesn’t have a check account?”