“Someone blew up La Cienega last night. The Guards have checkpoints everywhere.”
“Did you set off the bomb?”
“No. According to the news, whoever set off the bomb did so as a final editorial comment regarding the universe.”
“Then you have nothing to fear from checkpoints.”
“I don’t fear the checkpoints, I simply don’t care to be stuck in the resulting traffic.”
A pause. Perhaps a slight exhalation over the line, betraying the thinnest reed of annoyance.
“You kept me waiting for you to answer. Do not keep me waiting any longer. Please.”
The word, on this occasion, meant to imply that it was for my own sake she was pleading. And most certainly, it was.
“I’ll be there as soon as I may.”
The line went dead.
Was it me, or had there been coarseness in the quality of her tone, slight nicks and burrs along the usually sharp edge, betraying overuse or lack of care?
Even after all the carriers had merged under pressure from the government to pool their resources and keep the wireless taps open, it wasn’t always possible to tell what was in a person’s voice over a cell and what was simply static, interference, white noise. But, assuming I’d heard true, her tone implied nothing quite so much as someone very tired.
I held the phone in my hand, looked about the room, and set it on the pearlescent white top of the broad oval Thor coffee table.
It looked quite good there. And I could easily picture the other phones arranged around it. The change would require only the slightest echoing modifications of the room. The Dadox could simply remain in place, as I’d no longer be required to look into its reflective surface.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, picked up the Katana, and retuned it to the silver cube among the other phones. The point was that I should be required to look at myself when these phones rang. That I be taxed to contemplate myself honestly before answering, knowing that to answer the phone would likely obligate me to take the job. And looking at oneself honestly must, sadly, include the contemplation of one’s thinning hair.