He sat on a curb to pick a rock from his shoe, idly.
‘Someone!’ he screamed, leaping. ‘Me! Good Lord, what’s wrong with me!’ he shrieked. He whirled. Which house? That one!
He raced over the lawn, up the steps, into the house, down a dark hall.
He yanked up the receiver.
‘Hello!’ he cried.
Buzzzzzzzzz.
‘Hello, hello!’
They had hung up.
‘Hello!’ he shouted, and banged the phone. ‘You stupid idiot!’ he cried to himself. ‘Sitting on that curb, you fool! Oh, you damned and awful fool!’ He squeezed the phone. ‘Come on, ring again! Come on!’
He had never thought there might be others left on Mars. In the entire week he had seen no one. He had figured that all other towns were as empty as this one.
Now, staring at this terrible little black phone, he trembled. Interlocking dial systems connected every town on Mars. From which of the thirty cities had the call come?
He didn’t know.
He waited. He wandered to the strange kitchen, thawed some iced huckle-berries, ate them disconsolately.
‘There wasn’t anyone on the other end of that call,’ he murmured. ‘Maybe a pole blew down somewhere and the phone rang by itself.’
But hadn’t he heard a click, which meant someone had hung up far away?
He stood in the hall the rest of the night. ‘Not because of the phone,’ he told himself. ‘I just haven’t anything else to do.’
He listened to his watch tick.
‘She won’t phone back,’ he said. ‘She won’t ever call a number that didn’t answer. She’s probably dialing other houses in town right now! And here I sit – Wait a minute!’ He laughed. ‘Why do I keep saying “she”?’
He blinked. ‘It could as easily be a “he,” couldn’t it?’
His heart slowed. He felt very cold and hollow.
He wanted very much for it to be a ‘she.’
He walked out of the house and stood in the center of the early, dim morning street.
He listened. Not a sound. No birds. No cars. Only his heart beating. Beat and pause and beat again. His face ached with strain. The wind blew gently, oh so gently, flapping his coat.
‘Shh,’ he whispered. ‘Listen.’
He swayed in a slow circle, turning his head from one silent house to another.
She’ll phone more and more numbers, he thought. It must be a woman. Why? Only a woman would call and call. A man wouldn’t. A man’s independent. Did I phone anyone? No! Never thought of it. It must be a woman. It has to be, by God!
Listen.
Far away, under the stars, a phone rang.
He ran. He stopped to listen. The ringing, soft. He ran a few more steps. Louder. He raced down an alley. Louder still! He passed six houses, six more. Much louder! He chose a house and its door was locked.
The phone rang inside.
‘Damn you!’ He jerked the doorknob.
The phone screamed.
He heaved a porch chair through the parlor window, leaped in after it.
Before he even touched the phone, it was silent.
He stalked through the house then and broke mirrors, tore down drapes, and kicked in the kitchen stove.
Finally, exhausted, he picked up the thin directory which listed every phone on Mars. Fifty thousand names.
He started with number one.
Amelia Ames. He dialed her number in New Chicago, one hundred miles over the dead sea.
No answer.
Number two lived in New New York, five thousand miles across the blue mountains.
No answer.
He called three, four, five, six, seven, eight, his fingers jerking, unable to grip the receiver.
A woman’s voice answered, ‘Hello?’
Walter cried back at her, ‘Hello, oh Lord, hello!’
‘This is a recording,’ recited the woman’s voice. ‘Miss Helen Arasumian is not home. Will you leave a message on the wire spool so she may call you when she returns? Hello? This is a recording. Miss Arasumian is not home. Will you leave a message—’
He hung up.
He sat with his mouth twitching.
On second thought he redialed that number.
‘When Miss Helen Arasumian comes home,’ he said, ‘tell her to go to hell.’
He phoned Mars Junction, New Boston, Arcadia, and Roosevelt City exchanges, theorizing that they would be logical places for persons to dial from: after that he contacted local city halls and other public institutions in each town. He phoned the best hotels. Leave it to a woman to put herself up in luxury.
Suddenly he stopped, clapped his hands sharply together, and laughed. Of course! He checked the directory and dialed a long-distance call through to the biggest beauty parlor in New Texas City. If ever there was a place where a woman would putter around, patting mud packs on her face and sitting under a drier, it would be a velvet-soft, diamondgem beauty parlor!
The phone rang. Someone at the other end lifted the receiver.
A woman’s voice said, ‘Hello?’
‘If this is a recording,’ announced Walter Gripp, ‘I’ll come over and blow the place up.’
‘This isn’t a record,’ said the woman’s voice. ‘Hello! Oh, hello, there is someone alive! Where are you?’ She gave a delighted scream.
Walter almost collapsed. ‘You!’ He stood up jerkily, eyes wild. ‘Good Lord, what luck, what’s your name?’
‘Genevieve Selsor!’ She wept into the receiver. ‘Oh, I’m so glad to hear from you, whoever you are!’
‘Walter Gripp!’
‘Walter, hello, Walter!’
‘Hello, Genevieve!’
‘Walter. It’s such a nice name. Walter, Walter!’
‘Thank you.’
‘Walter, where are you?’
Her voice was so kind and sweet and fine. He held the phone tight to his ear so she could whisper sweetly into it. He felt his feet drift off the floor. His cheeks burned.
‘I’m in Marlin Village,’ he said. ‘I—’
Buzz.
‘Hello?’ he said.
Buzz.
He jiggled the hook. Nothing.
Somewhere a wind had blown down a pole. As quickly as she had come. Genevieve Selsor was gone.
He dialed, but the line was dead.
‘I know where she is, anyway.’ He ran out of the house. The sun was rising as he backed a beetle-car from the stranger’s garage, filled its back seat with food from the house, and set out at eighty miles an hour down the highway, heading for New Texas City.
A thousand miles, he thought. Genevieve Selsor, sit tight, you’ll hear from me!
He