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New York City

June 15

Present

Becca atching an afternoon soap opera she’d seen off and on since she was a kid She found herself wondering if she would ever have a child who needed a heart transplant one month and a new kidney the next, or a husband ouldn’t be faithful to her for longer than it took a neoman to look in his direction

Then the phone rang

She jumped to her feet, then stopped dead still and stared over at the phone She heard a guy on TV whining about how life wasn’t fair

He didn’t knohat fair was

She made no move to answer the phone She just stood there and listened, watching it as it rang threein a coma in Lenox Hill Hospital, because she just plain couldn’t stand the ringing ringing ringing, she watched her hand reach out and pick up the receiver

She forced her le word “Hello?”

“Hi, Rebecca It’s your boyfriend I’ve got you so scared you have to force yourself to pick up the phone Isn’t that right?”

She closed her eyes as that hated voice, low and deep, swept over her, into her,No hint of an Atlanta drawl, no sharp New York vowels, no dropped R’s from Boston A voice that ell educated, with smooth, clear diction, perhaps even a touch of the Brit in it Old? Young? She didn’t know, couldn’t tell She had to keep it together She had to listen carefully, to reether Make hi, you never knoill pop out That hat the police psychologist in Albany had told her to do when theher Listen carefully Don’t let hiuide him, not the other way around Becca licked her lips, chapped from the hot, dry air in Manhattan that week, an anomaly, the weather forecaster had said And so Becca repeated her litany of questions, trying to keep her voice cale, yes, that was her “Won’t you tell me who you are? I really want to know Maybe we can talk about why you keep calling me Can we do that?”

“Can’t you come up with soood dozen tis Ah, they’re from a shrink, aren’t they? They told you to ask those questions, to try to distract uts to you Sorry, it won’t work”

She’d never really thought it would work, that stratage, and he kne to do it She wanted to plead with him to leave her alone, but she didn’t Instead, she snapped She sirinding fear She gripped the phone, knuckles white, and yelled, “Listen toyou’rebut a sick jerk No about this for a question? Why don’t you go to hell where you belong? Why don’t you go kill yourself, you’re sure not worth anything to the human race Don’t call me anymore, you pathetic bastard The cops are on to you The phone is tapped, do you hear et you and fry you”

She’d caught hiuard, she knew it, and an adrenaline rush sent her sky-high, but only for a ht pause, he recovered In a calm, reasonable voice, he said, “Now, Rebecca sweetheart, you knoell as I do that the cops now don’t believe you’re being stalked, that so to scare you You had the phone tap put in yourself because you couldn’t get theh for that old, low-tech equipet a trace Oh yes, Rebecca, because you insulted -time”

She sla to stanch the bleeding of a wound, as if holding it doould keep hiain, keep him away from her Slowly, finally, she backed away from the phone She heard a wife on the TV soap plead with her husband not to leave her for her younger sister She walked out onto her small balcony and looked over Central Park, then turned a bit to the right to look at the Metropolitan Museum Hordes of people, most in shorts, , talking, eating hot dogs fro dope, picking pockets, and there were two cops on horseback nearby, their horses’ heads pu up and down, nervous for some reason The sun blazed down It was only mid-June, yet the unseasonable heat wave continued unabated Inside the apartrees cooler Too cold, at least for her, but she couldn’t get the thermostat to move either up or down