第20章 A Friend on the Line（第1页）

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。