Summary

The anonymous first-person narrator started calling strangers from the phone book and wrote the number of the first person with whom he spoke, “Kitty-Kat” (17), on the wall next to the jail phone. When jail workers painted over the number, the narrator instead jotted down working numbers in the phone book. He always referred to himself as “Heyitsme” (18), so the person on the line would more likely answer after asking “Who is this?” (17). An old woman read from the Book of Revelation. A retired mechanic “confided” (20) he and his wife were starting to resent one another. The narrator listened through the phone “to the world around them” (20). Kitty-Kat answered because he had landed in jail once before. Kitty-Kat told the narrator he could call back, but the narrator lost the number.

Again, the narrator called the old woman, who this time put the...