Where I'm Calling From

system of canals, passageways, and walls.
    “Well, your nurse was never faced with this exact problem,” Inez said. “Anyway, we need to try something. We’ll try this first. If it doesn’t work, we’ll try something else. That’s life, isn’t it?”
    “Does that have a hidden meaning or something?” Lloyd said.
    “It means just what I said. But you’re free to think as you please. I mean, it’s a free country,” she said.
    “Now, let me get fixed up with what I need. You just sit there.”
    She went through her purse, but she didn’t find what she was looking for. Finally, she emptied the purse out onto the sofa. “No hairpins,” she said. “Damn.” But it was as if she were saying the words from another room. In a way, it was almost as if he’d imagined her saying them. There’d been a time, long ago, when they used to feel they had ESP when it came to what the other one was thinking. They could finish sentences that the other had started.
    She picked up some nail clippers, worked for a minute, and then he saw the device separate in her fingers and part of it swing away from the other part. A nail file protruded from the clippers. It looked to him as if she were holding a small dagger.
    “You’re going to put that in my ear?” he said.
    “Maybe you have a better idea,” she said. “It’s this, or else I don’t know what. Maybe you have a pencil?
    You want me to use that? Or maybe you have a screwdriver around,” she said and laughed. “Don’t worry. Listen, Lloyd, I won’t hurt you. I said I’d be careful. I’ll wrap some tissue around the end of this.
    It’ll be all right. I’ll be careful, like I said. You just stay where you are, and I’ll get some tissue for this.
    I’ll make a swab.”
    She went into the bathroom. She was gone for a time. He stayed where he was on the dinette chair. He began thinking of things he ought to say to her. He wanted to tell her he was limiting himself to champagne and champagne only. He wanted to tell her he was tapering off the champagne, too. It was only a matter of time now. But when she came back into the room, he couldn’t say anything. He didn’t know where to start. But she didn’t look at him, anyway. She fished a cigarette from the heap of things she’d emptied onto the sofa cushion. She lit the cigarette with her lighter and went to stand by the window that faced onto the street. She said something, but he couldn’t make out the words. When she stopped talking, he didn’t ask her what it was she’d said. Whatever it was, he knew he didn’t want her to say it again. She put out the cigarette. But she went on standing at the window, leaning forward, the slope of the roof just inches from her head.
    “Inez,” he said.
    She turned and came over to him. He could see tissue on the point of the nail file.
    “Turn your head to the side and keep it that way,” she said. “That’s right. Sit still now and don’t move.
    Don’t move,” she said again.
    “Be careful,” he said. “For Christ’s sake.”
    She didn’t answer him.
    “Please, please,” he said. Then he didn’t say any more. He was afraid. He closed his eyes and held his breath as he felt the nail file turn past the inner part of his ear and begin its probe. He was sure his heart would stop beating. Then she went a little farther and began turning the blade back and forth, working at whatever it was in there. Inside his ear, he heard a squeaking sound.
    “Ouch!” he said.
    “Did I hurt you?” She took the nail file out of his ear and moved back a step. “Does anything feel different, Lloyd?”
    He brought his hands up to his ears and lowered his head.
    “It’s just the same,” he said.
    She looked at him and bit her lips.
    “Let me go to the bathroom,” he said. “Before we go any farther, I have to go to the bathroom.”
    “Go ahead,” Inez said. “I think I’ll go downstairs and see if your landlady has any Wesson oil, or anything like that. She might even have some Q-tips. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before. Of asking her.”
    “That’s a good idea,” he said. “I’ll go to the bathroom.”
    She stopped at the door and looked at him, and then she opened the door and went out. He crossed the living room, went into his bedroom, and opened the bathroom door. He reached down behind the stool and brought up the bottle of champagne. He took a long drink. It was warm but it went right down. He took some more. In the beginning,