The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1920-02-07
THE GHOST AT
THE PHONE
By GERTSON SCHAEFFER
Copyright.


(Copyright.J
The end Of the busy day had come
at last, and H. Miller Virry found the
headache still with him.
All during the rush hours of the day,
as he had watched his assignments and
ideas develop into stories under the
deft work of the reporters, he had
waited for this hour
Away back there, somewhere, never
quite hidden by the thousands of ideas
that whirled through the streets of his
mind, there had been the one thought
that when the day was over he would
write a letter.
But about the overwhelmingly it
had never left him. The malady SEEM
ed to be seated in the very dome of
his head.
| Now it was time to write. 1t was
Saturday evening, and he was alone.
A furtive look came into Virry's
eyes, He even crossed the room and
looked behind locker door that was
standing open. Somehow it did not
seem strange to him that he should do
| this. He wanted to be alone.
He walked over to the police report
er's desk. The typewriter there was
the best in the Office. Macdonald al
ways kept his machine clean.
The steady hum that rose from the
sidewalk told him that it was six
| o'clock.
The thought of the letter he would
write came forward and waved away
that other COnsciOusness-that he had
not eaten since breakfast-and he
seated himself at the typewriter
again.
He drummed with his long fingers
cOntemplatively, looked about the room
a moment with a nervous glance, and
then began writing, using his index
fingers only, as they write who are
self-taught operators:
"The Town Where You Are Not.
"The Day When l Miss You Most.
"The Girl Whom l Love;
Il Don't Know Where.
Sweetheart:
That cracking sound made him
jump again. He began writing:
"This letter, sweetheart, will surely
test your love, for 1 have so much
trouble to put into it that you will
hardly be able to read 1t. I'm hardly
able to write it."
He jumped from his chair and hur-
ried to the telephone.
Hello" he said. "Hello-hello."
He was annoyed, but courteous. He
listened moment.
"Why, 1 don't want any number. I
thought you rang. All right, Central"
He returned to his letter:
Sometimes l think perhaps you
know all about it. Then it seems
senseless for me to want to write to
you.
"At other times it seems as If YOU
had forgotten all about me. Then I
yearn to tell you.
IF you do know, perhaps you can
almost look over my shoulder now and
see me writing. That wouldn't be
senseless, thOugh-would it, milady?
"It would be just like talking over
old times that we both knew all about,
but love to hear each other mention.
If you don't know
He went over to the telephone again,
Hello" he said in his businesslike
manner.
There was always q note of expect
ancy in Virry's telephone Hello" the
ring of telephone in a newspaper Of
flee may mean a great sensation.
His left hand was on the top of his
head, where the ache was heaviest.
81 didn't ring" he heard Central
say. A puzzled expression came over
mis- face, and he went back to the
typewriter.
You would be interested to read
this, thought.
1--WE been thinking about you every
day. And here it is Saturday night.
Saturday nights / am loneliest.
when l first met you, we used to
have our six o'clock Saturday dinners
at the cafes, didn't we? And then |
would take you hGne.
after a while, used to come to
your home every Saturday night. You
said you liked that better.
$50 many Saturday nights have
passed since l last saw you"
He smiled. AS he drew away from
the desk the noise of his chair on the
floor and the sound of his footsteps re.
sounded through the room. Long ago
the presses had stopped their vibra.
ton. and the building was deserted
and dark.
His letter had been written slowly
for 1t required much thinking-a letter
of that sort.
'You have just called me up, but
something was the matter with the
line. You'll call again, and so I'll GO
on with the letter and hand it to you
as soon as / see you
81 was writing about the lonely Sat
urday nights. Somehow l don't seem
so lonely since l began to write to-
night.