As neon signs shimmered in the windows of the convenience store, Beatriz stood there at the payphone in a hooded raincoat, dialing numbers with a homemade blue box. She’d been phreaking since the age of sixteen, when she’d first discovered a manual explaining how to manipulate the telephone system. The first couple of times that she’d phreaked she’d been terrified, constantly glancing up and down the street, keeping a lookout for police cruisers. But by now she’d placed hundreds of thousands of free calls, and she’d never gotten caught. There was nowhere in the world she felt as calm as when she was standing at a payphone. She liked the feel of the keys, light steel squares embossed with numbers and letters and symbols, perfectly curved to fit the shape of her fingertip. She liked smooth hard feel of the plastic handset gripped in her hand. She liked to touch the slot for the coins, flip the lever for the coin release, flick the panel over the coin return, slip a finger into the hollow to rub the dip. She liked to squeeze the steel cord in her hand, dragging her palm down, feeling the texture of the grooves. Every aspect of the design appealed to her. A bus drove past on the street. She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, then punched a ten-digit number into the blue box. Tonight she was dialing an area code in Florida.
After a single ring she heard the line connect.
“Hello?”
“Um, hi, who’s this?”
“This is Heather.”
“This is Beatriz.”
A microwave beeped in the background.
“I know you?” Heather said, sounding muffled suddenly, as if she’d cocked her head to pin the handset against her shoulder so that she could use both hands.
“Um, no. I’m just calling random numbers. I was wondering if maybe you might want to talk to me.”
A refrigerator door thumped shut.
“Well, Beatriz, I’m just about to put dinner on the table, so now isn’t exactly the best time.”
“Oh, sorry.”
Children were chattering in the background.
“Oh, you have kids,” Beatriz said.
“Two-year-old triplets.”
“That’s amazing.”
“We’ve got one with a broken leg and one with a runny nose and one who for some reason just flat-out refuses to wear pants. Chaos incarnate. I haven’t had time to shower in almost a week.”
“That’s crazy.”
Silverware clattered onto a counter.
“Uh, before you go, can you tell me whatever you see out the window where you are?” Beatriz said.
Silence for a moment.
“I’ve just never been to Florida,” Beatriz said.
The sound of breathing.
“Beatriz.”
“Yeah?”
“God. Wow. So, we live across the street from a beach. Normally that’s all you would see this time of night, is just the darkness of the road and the sand and the water and the stars twinkling in the sky. But when you said that, I turned around to look, and just then there was this shooting star. Huge. Enormous. Humongous. So beautiful. Just this streak of bright blue light,” Heather said, suddenly sounding awed.
A dish shattered.
“Teddy, get down from the table,” Heather said.
“Thanks for talking to me,” Beatriz said.
“Goodnight, sweetie,” Heather said.
The line disconnected.
Beatriz stood holding the handset of the payphone. Heather was an actual person. Beatriz felt happy knowing that she was out there, living a life across the street from some faraway beach. Thinking about the connection she’d just made, she felt a tingle of goosebumps on the back of her neck. She felt embarrassed by how strong the feeling was. She loved every person on the planet, even the people that she’d never met. She wanted to feel another connection. Reaching for the blue box, she dialed another number as rain began to drizzle across the city.