600 Hours of Edward

way is dumb.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You have a yellow highlighter for a successful call and an asterisk for a callback. It should be green highlighter for a successful call and a yellow highlighter for a callback.”
    “Does it really matter?”
    “Yes. Colors have meanings. Yours don’t make any sense.”
    “But everybody in the office knows this color scheme.”
    “It flummoxes me. It’s probably why the calls have gone so poorly.”
    “I doubt that.”
    “I’m sure of it. Well, I’m not entirely sure. I would have to do a detailed analysis to be sure and talk to all of the business owners and ask them what is causing them to say no, and I doubt that I could do that, since I have had so much trouble reaching them thus far. So it’s not right for me to say I’m sure. I prefer facts. But the fact is that I’m flummoxed by this.”
    Sonya Starr smiles at me.
    “Mr. Stanton, I think we won’t be needing any more of your help. Thanks ever so much for coming by.”
    – • –
    On my drive home, I’m stopped at every traffic light by yellow. I do not keep data on traffic lights, but I cannot remember this ever happening to me.
    – • –
    As I near the house, I see that Kyle is standing on the sidewalk where it crosses the driveway. His back is to the street. His hands are jammed in his back pockets, and he is staring at the garage.
    I toot the horn, and he jumps aside and waves at me. I pull the car forward, set the brake, shut off the ignition, and get out.
    “The garage looks good,” Kyle says.
    “Yes.”
    “We did a good job. Do you like the color?”
    “Yes. But I’m painting it again tomorrow.”
    “What? Really?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I want to.”
    “Can I help?”
    “If you want to.”
    “Will I get paid?”
    “No.”
    He smiles. “I had to ask.”
    And then he’s gone, running again. I can’t remember the last time I ran. I don’t keep data on that.
    – • –
    Dinner is leftover spaghetti with meat sauce, warmed up in the microwave. I eat spaghetti nine times a week, every week, and it is my favorite food. And yet, tonight, I wonder if I am in a rut.
    – • –
    Tonight’s episode of
Dragnet
—the twenty-second of the fourth and final season—is called “DHQ: Night School,” and it is one of my favorites.
    In this episode, which originally aired on March 19, 1970, we see two
Dragnet
rarities: First, Sergeant Joe Friday spends most of the episode not wearing his customary gray suit, as he is attending night school. Instead, he wears a red cardigan sweater that I can only assume was a popular item in 1970, although I don’t like to assume. I prefer facts. Second, Sergeant Joe Friday has a female interest in this episode, a young nurse who is also attending night school. I guess night school was the sort of place where you met someone in 1970, before the Internet and online dating.
    Sergeant Joe Friday is doing very well in night school, but he spots a classmate carrying marijuana, and because he is a cop and cops are never off duty, he arrests his classmate after school. This greatly angers the teacher, played by an actor named Leonard Stone, who also played Sam Beauregard in the movie
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
, which is one of my favorites. He’s the one who says, “Violet! You’re turning violet, Violet!” Sam Beauregard is also supposed to be from Miles City, Montana, which isn’t all that far from where I live.
    Sergeant Joe Friday ends up getting kicked out of class on a vote of the classmates for breaking their trust. Sergeant Joe Friday stews about this, then comes back and asks the teacher for one more chance to talk to the class, with the agreement that if he doesn’t sway two-thirds of the class, he’s still out. The vote is in favor of Sergeant Joe Friday, but not by two-thirds, and he is prepared to leave until a lawyer wearing an eye patch tells the teacher that he has no right to deny Sergeant Joe Friday an education and that he will file charges to keep Sergeant Joe Friday in the class if the professor persists.
    This episode, I think, is about standing up for what you believe in, no matter how unpopular. I need to be a lot more like Sergeant Joe Friday.
    Sonya Starr:
    I wish to express my extreme displeasure with your intractability on the issue of how to label the calls made on behalf of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Your refusal to listen to my concerns and then your abrupt dismissal of me were not