The day went by quiet and uneventful as the others had been. I read a novel and sewed at a tray cloth, and now and then jacked in for a call. It was getting on for evening and I was thinking about home and dinner when—Bang! came two calls, one right after the other, that made me feel I was earning my money.
The first was at a quarter to five. Our central came sharp and clear:
"Hello, Gramercy 3503—Long Distance—Philadelphia's calling you."
Philadelphia! Can you see me stiffening up, with my hand ready to raise the cam?
"All right—Gramercy 3503."
I could hear the girls in our central, the wait of hum and broken sounds—how well I knew it!—and then a distant voice, brisk and business-like, "Hello, Philadelphia—Waiting." Then a pause and presently the whispering jar of the wires, "Here's your party. Gramercy 3503, all right for Philadelphia."
Running over those miles and miles the voice—a man's—came clear as a bell.
"I want to speak to the Azalea Woods Estates."
I made the connection, softly lifted the cam, and listened in.
"Is this the office of the Azalea Woods Estates?"