I had hardly put Sookie to sleep and crawled up on the end of Mama's cook table when the phone started ringing—two longs and a short.
"Mama, it's our ring! Lemme answer it! Lemme, Mama! Please!"
"All right. Hurry. I'll be in there soon as I wash this sticky dough off my fingers. I can't imagine who—"
I couldn't wait for Mama to finish whatever she'd started to say. I dropped the sifter, jumped off the table, and streaked up the hall toward the front room. The phone kept ringing.
As soon as I could push a chair over to the wall I climbed on it and started jerking at the cord on the ear piece. That stopped the ringing. Then, by standing on tiptoe, I managed to yank the hearing thing all the way off its hook.
"Hello!" I hollered up into the mouth cup.
"Hello? Hello? Who's this?"
"It's me!"
"Who?"
"Me! I mean—"