第20章AFriendontheLine
JenningsMichaelBirch
&afriehoutawitness。—Spanishproverb
BeforeIevenfinisheddialing，IsomehowknewI’dmadeamistake。Thephohensomeoup。
“Yougnumber!”ahuskymalevoiappedbeforetheliified，Idialedagain。
“Isaidyougnumber!”camethevoiorethephonemyear。
HowcouldhepossiblyknowIhadawrohattime，IworkedfortheNewYorkCityPoliceDepartment。Acopistraiobeded。SoIdialedathirdtime。
“Hey，ansaid。“Isthisyouagain?”
&’sme，”Ianswered。“IwaswhowyoukhewrongnumberbeforeIevensaidanything?”
“Youfigureitout!”Thephonedslammeddown。
Isatthereawhile，thereginglooselyinmyfingers。Icalledthemanback。
“Didyoufigureitoutyet?”heasked。
&hingIkofis。。。nobodyevercallsyou。”
“Yougotit!”Thephohefourthtime。g，Idialedthemanback。
“Whatdoyouwantno>
“IthoughtI’dcall。。。justtosayhello。”
“Hello?Why?”
“Well，ifnobodyevercallsyou，IthoughtmaybeIshould。”
“Okay。Hello。Whoisthis?”
Atlast。Ihadgh。Nowhewascurious。ItoldhimwhoIwasandasked>
“MynameisAdolfMeth。I’m88yearsold，ahismanywrongnumbersinonedayin20years!”>
&alkedfor10minutes。Adolfhadnofamily，nofriends。Everyonehehadbeeohaddied。Thenwediscoveredwehadsomethinginon:he’dworkedfortheNewYorkCityPoliceDepartmentfornearly40years。Tellihisdaysthereasaoroperator，heseemediing，evenfriendly。IaskedifIcouldcallhimagain。