Where I'm Calling From

Mary said.
    Carl came out of the bedroom with the water pipe. “What do you think of this?” he said to Jack. He put the water pipe on the coffee table.
    “That’s really something,” Jack said. He picked it up and looked at it.
    “It’s called a hookah,” Helen said. “That’s what they called it where I bought it. It’s just a little one, but it does the job.” She laughed.
    “Where did you get it?” Mary said.
    “What? That little place on Fourth Street. You know,” Helen said.
    “Sure. I know,” Mary said. “I’ll have to go in there some day,” Mary said. She folded her hands and watched Carl.
    “How does it work?” Jack said.
    “You put the stuff here,” Carl said. “And you light this. Then you inhale through this here and the smoke is filtered through the water. It has a good taste to it and it really hits you.”
    “I’d like to get Jack one for Christmas,” Mary said. She looked at Jack and grinned and touched his arm.
    “I’d like to have one,” Jack said. He stretched his legs and looked at his shoes under the light.
    “Here, try this.” Carl said, letting out a thin stream of smoke and passing the tube to Jack. “See if this isn’t okay.”
    Jack drew on the tube, held the smoke, and passed the tube to Helen.
    “Mary first,” Helen said. “I’ll go after Mary. You guys have to catch up.”
    “I won’t argue,” Mary said. She slipped the tube in her mouth and drew rapidly, twice, and Jack watched the bubbles she made.
    “That’s really okay,” Mary said. She passed the tube to Helen.
    “We broke it in last night.” Helen said, and laughed loudly.
    “She was still stoned when she got up with the kids this morning,” Carl said, and he laughed. He watched Helen pull on the tube.
    “How are the kids?” Mary asked.
    “They’re fine,” Carl said and put the tube in his mouth. Jack sipped the cream soda and watched the bubbles in the pipe. They reminded him of bubbles rising from a diving helmet. He imagined a lagoon and schools of remarkable fish.
    Carl passed the tube.
    Jack stood up and stretched.
    “Where are you going, honey?” Mary asked.
    “No place,” Jack said. He sat down and shook his head and grinned. “Jesus.”
    Helen laughed.
    “What’s funny?” Jack said after a long time.
    “God, I don’t know,” Helen said. She wiped her eyes and laughed again, and Mary and Carl laughed.
    After a time Carl unscrewed the top of the water pipe and blew through one of the tubes. “It gets plugged sometimes.”
    “What did you mean when you said I was on a bummer?” Jack said to Mary.
    “What?” Mary said.
    Jack stared at her and blinked. “You said something about me being on a bummer. What made you say that?”
    “I don’t remember now, but I can tell when you are,” she said. “But please don’t bring up anything negative, okay?”
    “Okay,” Jack said. “All I’m saying is I don’t know why you said that. If I wasn’t on a bummer before you said it, it’s enough when you say it to put me on one.”
    “If the shoe fits,” Mary said. She leaned on the arm of the sofa and laughed until tears came.
    “What was that?” Carl said. He looked at Jack and then at Mary. missed that one,” Carl said.
    I should have made some dip for these chips,” Helen said.
    “Wasn’t there another bottle of that cream soda?” Carl said.
    “We bought two bottles,” Jack said.
    “Did we drink them both?” Carl said.
    “Did we drink any?” Helen said and laughed. “No, I only opened one. I think I only opened one. I don’t remember opening more than one,” Helen said and laughed.
    Jack passed the tube to Mary. She took his hand and guided the tube into her mouth. He watched the smoke flow over her lips a long time later.
    “What about some cream soda?” Carl said. Mary and Helen laughed.
    “What about it?” Mary said.
    “Well, I thought we were going to have us a glass,” Carl said. He looked at Mary and grinned.
    Mary and Helen laughed.
    “What’s funny?” Carl said. He looked at Helen and then at Mary. He shook his head. “I don’t know about you guys,” he said.
    “We might go to Alaska,” Jack said.
    “Alaska?” Carl said. “What’s in Alaska? What would you do up there?”
    “I wish we could go someplace,” Helen said.
    “What’s wrong with here?” Carl said. “What would you guys do in Alaska? I’m serious. I’d like to know.”
    Jack put a potato chip in his mouth and sipped his cream soda. “I don’t