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Just before the telephone rang, storm winds toppled the tree outside herand jolted Miss Keene froasp, her frail hands cru twists of sheet in either palm Beneath her flesh-less chest the heart jerked taut, the sluggish blood spurted She sat in rigid ht
In another second, the telephone rang
Who on earth? The question shaped unwittingly in her brain Her thin hand faltered in the darkness, the fingers searching a moment and then Miss Elva Keene drew the cool receiver to her ear
’Hello,’ she said
Outside a cannon of thunder shook the night, twitching Miss Keene’s crippled legs I’ve ht, the thunder has blotted out the voice
’Hello,’ she said again
There was no sound Miss Keene waited in expectant lethargy Then she repeated, ’Hel-lo,’ in a cracking voice Outside the thunder crashed again
Still no voice spoke, not even the sound of a phone being disconnectedhand reached out and thuryback on her pillow Already her infir
She forced out a weary breath Now she’d have to suffer through the whole tor of jaded s, the endless, frustrating struggle to turn off the faucet in her brain and keep unwanted thoughts fro Oh, well, it had to be done; Nurse Phillips insisted on proper rest Elva Keene breathed slowly and deeply, drew the covers to her chin and laboured hopefully for sleep
In vain
Her eyes opened and, turning her face to the , she watched the stors Why can’t I sleep, she fretted, why must I always lie here awake like this?
She knew the ansithout effort When a life was dull, the s And life for Miss Keene was the sorry pattern of lying flat’ or being propped on pillows, reading books which Nurse Phillips brought fro nourish to her tiny radio �C and waiting, waiting for so different to happen
Like the telephone call that wasn’t a call
There hadn’t even been the sound of a receiver replaced in its cradle Miss Keene didn’t understand that Why would anyone call her exchange and then listen silently while she said ’Hello,’ over and over again? Had it actually been anyone calling?
What she should have done, she realised then, was to keep listening until the other person tired of the joke and put down the receiver What she should have done was to speak out forcefully about the inconsideration of a prankish call to a crippled ht Then, if there had been so, whoever it ould have been properly chastened by her angry words and
’Well, of course’
She said it aloud in the darkness, punctuating the sentence with a cluck of soust Of course, the telephone was out of order Someone had tried to contact her, perhaps Nurse Phillips to see if she was all right But the other end of the line had broken down in so but no verbal communication to be made Well, of course, that was the case
Miss Keene nodded once and closed her eyes gently Now to sleep, she thought Far away, beyond the county, the stor, Elva Keene thought, that would be too bad
She was thinking that when the telephone rang again
There, she thought, they are trying to reach ain She reached out hurriedly in the darkness, fumbled until she felt the receiver, then pulled it to her ear
’Hello,’ said Miss Keene
Silence
Her throat contracted She kneas wrong, of course, but she didn’t like it, no, not at all
’Hello?’ she said tentatively, not yet certain that she asting breath
There was no reply She waited a moment, then spoke a third ti in the dark bedrooe to fling, the receiver away She forced down that curious instinct �C no, sheup the phone on the other end of the line
So she waited
The bedroo to hear; either the sound of a receiver going down or the buzz which usually follows Her chest rose and fell in delicate lurches, she closed her eyes in concentration, then opened theain and blinked at the darkness There was no sound from the telephone; not a click, not a buzz, not a sound of so down a receiver
’Hello!’ she cried suddenly, then pushed away the receiver
She et The receiver dropped and thu Miss Keene nervously clicked on the laht filled her eyes Quickly, she lay on her side and tried to reach the silent, voiceless telephone
But she couldn’t stretch far enough and crippled legs prevented her frohtened My God,
Re then, she reached out abruptly and pressed the cradle aran to buzz nor breath as she slumped back on her pillow
She threw out hooks of reason then and pulled herself back fro upset over such a trivial and easily explained incident It was the storht, the way in which I’d been shocked fros piled on themonotony that’s my life Yes, it was bad, very bad But it wasn’t the incident that was bad It was her reaction to it
Miss Elva Keen numbed herself to further premonitions ’I shall sleep now’ she ordered her body with a petulant shake She lay very still and relaxed Fro like the drone of far-off bees She ignored it
Early the next , after Nurse Phillips had taken away the breakfast dishes, Elva Keen called the telephone company
This is Miss Elva,’ she told the operator
’Oh, yes, Miss Elva,’ said the operator, a Miss Finch ’Can I help you?’
’Last nighttwice,’ said Elva Keene ’But when I answered it, no one spoke And I didn’t hear any receiver drop I didn’t even hear a dial tone �C just silence’
’Well, I’ll tell you, Miss Elva,’ said the cheery voice of Miss Finch, ’that storht just about ruined half our service We’re being flooded with calls about knocked down lines and bad connections I’d say you’re pretty lucky your phone is working at all’
’Then you think it was probably a bad connection,’ prompted Miss Keene, ’caused by the storm?’
’Oh, yes, Miss Elva, that’s all’
’Do you think it will happen again?’
’Oh, it may,’ said Miss Finch ’It may I really couldn’t tell you, Miss Elva But if it does happen again, you just call me and then I’ll have one of our ht,’ said Miss Elva ’Thank you, dear’
She lay on her pillows all , she thought, to solve a ht as it is It had been a terrible storm that caused the bad connection And no wonder when it had even knocked down the ancient oak-tree beside the house That was the noise that had awakened me of course, and a pity it was that the dear tree had fallen How it shaded the house in hot surateful, she thought, that the tree fell across the road and not across the house
The day passed uneventfully, an aela Thirkell and the ht bill), plus brief chats with Nurse Phillips Indeed, routine had set in so properly that when the telephone rang early that evening, she picked it up without even thinking
’Hello,’ she said
Silence
It brought her back for a second Then she called Nurse Phillips
’What is it?’ asked the portly wo
’This is what I was telling you about,’ said Elva Keene, holding out the receiver ’Listen!’
Nurse Phillips took the receiver in her hand and pushed back grey locks with the earpiece Her placid face remained placid ’There’s nobody there,’ she observed
’That’s right,’ said Miss Keene ’That’s right Now you just listen and see if you can hear a receiver being put down I’m sure you won’t’
Nurse Phillips listened for a ,’ she said and hung up
’Oh, wait!’ Miss Keene said hurriedly ’Oh, well, it doesn’tit was already down ’If it happens too often, I’ll just call Miss Finch and they’ll have a repairman check on it’
’I see,’ Nurse Phillips said and went back to the living rooht, leaving on the bedside table, as usual, an apple, a cookie, a glass of water and the bottle of pills She puffed up the pillows behind Miss Keene’s fragile back, moved the radio and telephone a little closer to the bed, looked around co, I’ll see you tomorrow’
It was fifteenMiss Keene picked up the receiver quickly She didn’t bother saying hello this time �C she just listened
At first it was the same �C an absolute silence She listened athe receiver, she heard the sound Her cheek twitched, she jerked the telephone back to her ear
’Hello?’ she asked tensely
Asound �C as it? Miss Keene shut her eyes tightly, listening hard, but she couldn’t identify the sound; it was too soft, too undefined, it deviated fro vibration to an escape of air to a bubbling sibilance It ht, itthe noise Perhaps a wire blowing in the wind so then She stopped breathing The sound had ceased Oncein her ears She could feel the heartbeats stu in Oh, this is ridiculous, she told herself I’ve already been through this - it was the storm, the storm!
She lay back on her pillows, the receiver pressed to her ear, nervous breaths faltering fro dread rise like a tide within her, despite all attelassy perch of reason; she kept falling deeper and deeper
Now she shuddered violently as the sounds began again They couldn’t possibly be hu about theean to hover in her throat But she couldn’t put down the telephone, she simply couldn’t The sounds held her hypnotised Whether they were the rise and fall of the wind or theof faulty o
’Hello ?’ she murmured, shakily
The sounds rose in volume They rattled and shook in her brain
’Hello!’ she screamed
’H-e-l~l-o,’ answered a voice on the telephone Then Miss Keene fainted dead away
’Are you certain it was so hello?’ Miss Finch asked Miss Elva over the telephone ’It ht have been the connection, you know’
’I tell you it was aElva Keene screeched ’It was the sa tome back The same one who made terrible noises over the telephone!’
Miss Finch cleared her throat politely ’Well, I’ll have a man check your line, Miss Elva, as soon as he can Of course, the e, but as soon as it’s possible’
’And what aain?’
’You just hang up on hi!’
’Well’ Miss Finch’s affability wavered ’Why don’t you find out who he is, Miss Elva? If you can do that, e can take i up, Miss Keene lay against the pillows tensely, listening to Nurse Phillips sing husky love songs over the breakfast dishes Miss Finch didn’t believe her story, that was apparent Miss Finch thought she was a nervous old woination Well, Miss Finch would find out differently
’I’ll just keep calling her and calling her until she does,’ she said irritably to Nurse Phillips just before afternoon nap
’You just do that,’ said Nurse Phillips ’Now take your pill and lie down,’
Miss Keene lay in grumpy silence, her vein-rutted hands knotted at her sides It was ten after two and, except for the bubbling of Nurse Phillips’s front room snores, the house was silent in the October afternoon It ht Elva Keene, that no one will take this seriously Well - her thin lips pressed together �C the next tis I’ll make sure that Nurse Phillips listens until she does hear so
Miss Keene felt a cold treht with sunbeahtened her She dug porcelain teeth into her lower lip to steady it Shall 1 answer it? the question came and then, before she could even think to answer, her hand picked up the receiver A deep ragged breath; she drew the phone slowly to her ear She said, ’Hello? ’
The voice answered back, ’Hello?’ �C hollow and inani to keep her throat clear
’Hello?’
’Who’s calling, please?’
’Hello?’
’Is anyone there!’
’Hello?’
’Please!’
’Hello?’
Miss Keene ja violently, unable to catch her breath What is it, begged her aret!’ she cried ’Margaret!’