@@@@@ Of course you can, Kamen saidWhat is your
@@@@@
Of course you can, Kamen saidWhat is your weight?
It was a hundred and seventy-four, up from an alltime
adult low of one-fiftyI saw these numbers
in my mind: 174150Then
five of them turned green, one after the other
Without opening my eyes, I seized the stub of the
pencil and wrote them on the pad: 40175
And what is your Social Security number? Kamen
enquired further
It appeared in darkness, bright red numbersFour
of them turned green, and I added them to what I
had already scrawledWhen I opened my eyes I had
printed 401759082 in a drunken, downward-tending
sprawl on the pad
It was right, I recognized it, but I was still
missing a number
It doesn't matter, the Kamen inside my head told
meKeypad phones are an amazing gift to the
memory-challengedIf you clear your mind and
punch what you already have, you'll hit the last
number with no problem
888
Hoping he was right, I opened LINE 1 again and
punched in the area code for Rhode Island and then
759-082My finger never hesitatedIt punched the
last number, and somewhere in Providence, a phone
began to ringzit?"
For a moment I was sure I'd blown the number after
allThe voice was female, but sounded older than
my daughterBut I resisted
my initial impulse to say "Wrong number" and hang
upShe sounded tired, Pam had said, but if this
was Ilse, she sounded more than tired; she sounded
weary unto death
"Ilse?"
No answer for a long timeI began to think the
disembodied someone in Providence had hung upI
realized I was sweating, and heavily enough so I
could smell myself, like a monkey on a branch
Then the same little refrain:
"Hel-lo?zit?"
"Ilse!"
889
Nothi