A Telephone Call by Dorothy Parker
It is about a young woman waiting for her boyfriend to call her. He told her he would call her at 5:00PM but it is now past 7:00 PM. The poor girl is going crazy waiting for him to call.
She had called him at work earlier today and he called her, "darling" twice so he must care about her. Right? She's wonders if he has been in an accident."Please, God, let him telephone me now. Dear God, let him call me now. I won't ask anything else of You, truly I won't. It isn't very much to ask."
"I never picture him run over. I never see him lying still and long and dead. I wish he were dead. That's a terrible wish. That's a lovely wish."She ties to make different deals with God. She will count to 500 in fives. God is to let him call then.
"Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twentyfive, thirty, thirty-five.…"
The story is a bit dated as she uses words like "gay". I haven't heard that word since The Flinstones. LOL! However, I think it stand true today. Probably this minute there is a girl willing her cell phone to ring or to at least receive a text message.
This is a funny story in parts. I could sympathize with the girt to a point but I kept thinking as I was reading it, "get a life, don't base your entire future on a man." She soon started to grate on my nerves. As John said, "annoying".
That said, I am interested in reading other Dorothy Parker stories. This was my first. You can read the story here.
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Now I'm going to have to read this, too ;-)
JoAnn said... February 8, 2011 at 6:59 AM
this is a good story-I also found the female lead annoying-I guess it is a satire on dependency -I enjoyed your post a lot-thanks for mentioning my post-as far as I know this is the only one of her stories you can read online-if this is wrong please correct me
Mel u said... February 8, 2011 at 1:08 PM
I have the feeling this story wouldremind me of my 20's!
Em
Anonymous said... February 8, 2011 at 3:27 PM
It's interesting because you want to dislike the guy and side with her, but good gravy, she's annoying. I wouldn't call her back either!
John Mutford said... February 8, 2011 at 7:07 PM
JoAnn, we tend to do that to each other, don't we. LOL!
Mel u, I just did a quick search and didn't find any others online. I guess to read anything further I will have to make a trip to the library.
Emeire, it could. LOL!
John, I wouldn't either. LOL!
Teddy Rose said... February 8, 2011 at 8:54 PM
Yikes, that girl sounds a bit like me in my twenties! I'm sure glad I have grown past those days!
Kathleen said... February 13, 2011 at 10:27 AM
Kathleen, I think we all went through that to one degree or another. She just took it to the next level. LOL!
Teddy Rose said... February 13, 2011 at 9:42 PM
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