Where I'm Calling From

know. What did you say?”
    After a while Carl said, “What’s in Alaska?”
    “I don’t know,” Jack said. “Ask Mary. Mary knows. Mary, what am I going to do up there? Maybe I’ll grow those giant cabbages you read about.”
    “Or pumpkins,” Helen said. “Grow pumpkins.”
    “You’d clean up,” Carl said. “Ship the pumpkins down here for Halloween. I’ll be your distributor.”
    “Carl will be your distributor,” Helen said.
    “That’s right,” Carl said. “We’ll clean up.”
    “Get rich,” Mary said.
    In a while Carl stood up. “I know what would taste good and that’s some cream soda,” Carl said.
    Mary and Helen laughed.
    “Go ahead and laugh,” Carl said, grinning. “Who wants some?”
    “Some what?” Mary said.
    “Some cream soda,” Carl said.
    “You stood up like you were going to make a speech,” Mary said.
    “I hadn’t thought of that,” Carl said. He shook his head and laughed. He sat down. “That’s good stuff,” he said.
    “We should have got more,” Helen said.
    “More what?” Mary said.
    “More money,” Carl said.
    “No money,” Jack said.
    “Did I see some U-No bars in that sack?” Helen said.
    “I bought some,” Jack said. “I spotted them the last minute.”
    “U-No bars are good,” Carl said.
    “They’re creamy,” Mary said. “They melt in your mouth.”
    “We have some M&M’s and Popsicles if anybody wants any,” Carl said.
    Mary said, “I’ll have a Popsicle. Are you going to the kitchen?”
    “Yeah, and I’m going to get the cream soda, too,” Carl said. “I just remembered. You guys want a glass?”
    “Just bring it all in and we’ll decide,” Helen said. “The M&M’s too.”
    “Might be easier to move the kitchen out here,” Carl said.
    “When we lived in the city,” Mary said, “people said you could see who’d turned on the night before by looking at their kitchen in the morning. We had a tiny kitchen when we lived in the city,” she said.
    “We had a tiny kitchen too,” Jack said.
    “I’m going out to see what I can find,” Carl said.
    “I’ll come with you,” Mary said.
    Jack watched them walk to the kitchen. He settled back against the cushion and watched them walk.
    Then he leaned forward very slowly. He squinted. He saw Carl reach up to a shelf in the cupboard. He saw Mary move against Carl from behind and put her arms around his waist.
    “Are you guys serious?” Helen said.
    “Very serious,” Jack said.
    “About Alaska,” Helen said.
    He stared at her.
    “I thought you said something,” Helen said.
    Carl and Mary came back. Carl carried a large bag of M&M’s and a bottle of cream soda, Mary sucked on an orange Popsicle.
    “Anybody want a sandwich?” Helen said. “We have sandwich stuff.”
    “Isn’t it funny,” Mary said. “You start with the desserts first and then you move on to the main course.”
    “It’s funny,” Jack said.
    “Are you being sarcastic, honey?” Mary said.
    “Who wants cream soda?” Carl said. “A round of cream soda coming up.”
    Jack held his glass out and Carl poured it full. Jack set the glass on the coffee table, but in reaching for it he knocked over the glass and the soda poured onto his shoe.
    “Goddamn it,” Jack said. “How do you like that? I spilled it on my shoe.”
    “Helen, do we have a towel? Get Jack a towel,” Carl said.
    “Those were new shoes,” Mary said. “He just got them.”
    “They look comfortable,” Helen said a long time later and handed Jack a towel.
    “That’s what I told him,” Mary said.
    Jack took the shoe off and rubbed the leather with the towel.
    “It’s done for,” he said. “That cream soda will never come out.”
    Mary and Carl and Helen laughed.
    “That reminds me, I read something in the paper,” Helen said. She pushed on the tip of her nose with a finger and narrowed her eyes. “I can’t remember what it was now,” she said.
    Jack worked the shoe back on. He put both feet under the lamp and looked at the shoes together.
    What did you read?” Carl said.
    “What?” Helen said.
    “You said you read something in the paper,” Carl said.
    Helen laughed. “I was just thinking about Alaska, and I remembered them finding a prehistoric man in a block of ice. Something reminded me.”
    “That wasn’t in Alaska,” Carl said.
    “Maybe it wasn’t, but it reminded me of it,” Helen said.
    “What about Alaska, you guys?” Carl said.
    “There’s nothing in Alaska,” Jack said.
    “He’s