Where I'm Calling From

gone wrong?” and goes to the kitchen to return with more Scotch. He sits, he closes his eyes, and opens them when he hears the telephone ringing.
    “I wanted to call,” she says.
    “Where are you?” he says. He hears piano music, and his heart moves.
    “I don’t know,” she says. “Someplace. We’re having a drink, then we’re going someplace else for dinner.
    I’m with the sales manager. He’s crude, but he’s all right. He bought the car. I have to go now. I was on my way to the ladies and saw the phone.”
    “Did somebody buy the car?” Leo says. He looks out the kitchen window to the place in the drive where she always parks.
    “I told you,” she says. “I have to go now.”
    “Wait, wait a minute, for Christ’s sake,” he says. “Did somebody buy the car or not?”
    “He had his checkbook out when I left,” she says. “I have to go now. I have to go to the bathroom.”
    “Wait!” he yells. The line goes dead. He listens to the dial tone. “Jesus Christ,” he says as he stands with the receiver in his hand.
    He circles the kitchen and goes back to the living room. He sits. He gets up. In the bathroom he brushes his teeth very carefully. Then he uses dental floss. He washes his face and goes back to the kitchen. He looks at the clock and takes a clean glass from a set that has a hand of playing cards painted on each glass. He fills the glass with ice. He stares for a while at the glass he left in the sink.
    He sits against one end of the couch and puts his legs up at the other end. He looks at the screen, realizes he can’t make out what the people are saying. He turns the empty glass in his hand and considers biting off the rim. He shivers for a time and thinks of going to bed, though he knows he will dream of a large woman with gray hair. In the dream he is always leaning over tying his shoelaces. When he straightens up, she looks at him, and he bends to tie again. He looks at his hand. It makes a fist as he watches. The telephone is ringing.
    “Where are you, honey?” he says slowly, gently.
    “We’re at this restaurant,” she says, her voice strong, bright.
    “Honey, which restaurant?” he says. He puts the heel of his hand against his eye and pushes.
    “Downtown someplace,” she says. “I think it’s New Jimmy’s. Excuse me,” she says to someone off the line, “is this place New Jimmy’s? This is New Jimmy’s, Leo,” she says to him. “Everything is all right, we’re almost finished, then he’s going to bring me home.”
    “Honey?” he says. He holds the receiver against his ear and rocks back and forth, eyes closed. “Honey?”
    “I have to’ go,” she says. “I wanted to call. Anyway, guess how much?”
    “Honey,” he says.
    “Six and a quarter,” she says. “I have it in my purse. He said there’s no market for convertibles. I guess we’re born lucky,” she says and laughs. “I told him everything. I think I had to.”
    “Honey,” Leo says.
    “What?” she says.
    “Please, honey,” Leo says.
    “He said he sympathizes,” she says. “But he would have said anything.” She laughs again. “He said personally he’d rather be classified a robber or a rapist than a bankrupt. He’s nice enough, though,” she says.
    “Come home,” Leo says. “Take a cab and come home.”
    “I can’t,” she says. “I told you, we’re halfway through dinner.”
    “I’ll come for you,” he says.
    “No,” she says. “I said we’re just finishing. I told you, it’s part of the deal. They’re out for all they can get. But don’t worry, we’re about to leave. I’ll be home in a little while.” She hangs up.
    In a few minutes he calls New Jimmy’s. A man answers. “New Jimmy’s has closed for the evening,” the man says.
    “I’d like to talk to my wife,” Leo says.
    “Does she work here?” the man asks. “Who is she?”
    “She’s a customer,” Leo says. “She’s with someone. A business person.”
    “Would I know her?” the man says. “What is her name?”
    “I don’t think you know her,” Leo says.
    “That’s all right,” Leo says. “That’s all right. I see her now.”
    “Thank you for calling New Jimmy’s,” the man says.
    Leo hurries to the window. A car he doesn’t recognize slows in front of the house, then picks up speed.
    He waits. Two, three hours later, the telephone rings again. There is no one at the other end when he picks up the receiver. There is only a dial tone.
    “I’m right here!” Leo