The Telephone

By: Mark Fewell
April 15, 2008

Connery stared at the telephone, plastic with innards that allowed him to call anywhere, anyone in the world. Yesterday, the man from the telephone company had come and installed the telephone Connery had bought at the Radio Shack in the mall.

Who would be the first to call? The second? The telephone company had called to confirm that the line had been properly installed. Connery sat waiting for the next call.

It wasn't the first time he had owned a telephone. He had owned one for the several months he had lived in Corpus Christi. He remembered the first call that had come on that telephone. His mother had called to tell him his grandfather had died.

Connery had loved is grandfather dearly. His grandfather would buy him chocolate on his birthday. Sometimes his grandfather would do this when it wasn't his birthday. And now his grandfather was dead.

Connery had had other calls on his first telephone. Angelica had called to tell him that she wanted to break off their relationship. The call came at the same time Connery was trying to find a way to come up with the money to buy an engagement ring.

There was the time the mechanic called to tell him it would cost four hundred bucks to fix his car, four hundred dollars he didn’t have, and all the times he was called into work on his day off.

The telephone rang. Connery reached for it, his hand freezing on the receiver.

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"Don't answer it. It'll only be bad news," the man, who sat in the empty white room devoid of telephone, said.