Friday, August 14, 2020

A Telephone Call


A Telephone Call is a short story by Dorothy Parker. You can read it online here. It begins,
Please, God, let him telephone me now. Dear God, let him call me now. I won't ask anything else of You, truly I won't. It isn't very much to ask. It would be so little to You, God, such a little, little thing. Only let him telephone now. Please, God. Please, please, please.

If I didn't think about it, maybe the telephone might ring. Sometimes it does that. If I could think of something else. If I could think of something else. Knobby if I counted five hundred by fives, it might ring by that time. I'll count slowly. I won't cheat. And if it rings when I get to three hundred, I won't stop; I won't answer it until I get to five hundred. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty, forty-five, fifty.... Oh, please ring. Please.

This is the last time I'll look at the clock. I will not look at it again.

14 comments:

  1. ...about the only calls that I get is from someone wanting to sell me something!

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  2. I took a class on the mystery novel genre in college. Read a bunch of Dorothy Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey stories. I liked Sayers a lot better than Agatha Christie

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    1. I love Sayers! I've got a collection of them around here somewhere if I didn't pass it along to the kids. Edward Petherbridge made a good Peter Wimsey, I thought.

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    2. I've never see the television dramas!

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    3. Definitely Delightful :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Dorothy_L._Sayers_Mystery

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  3. Thank you for sharing

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  4. I need to check this out. Love the retro phone you used in the photo!

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    1. I looked for a black one, but I ended up liking this image better.

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  5. Such a great writer, I think Dorothy Parker was was of the original writers for A Star is Born too 😀. I hope you had a great week! Hugs, Jo x

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  6. I love Dorothy Parker and this sounds delightful but what I really love here is your photo! Perfect!

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    1. Thx! I liked that image at first sight :)

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