I called a RadioShack store and described the type of answering machine she had, then added that I had lost my beeper and needed to buy another. The salesman said there were four possible beepers for the various models of that particular answering machine—A, B, C, and D—each of which played a different sequence of tones. I said, "I’m a musician, so I’ve got a good ear." He wanted me to come down to the store, but I couldn’t leave the halfway house because new arrivals weren’t permitted to leave the premises for the first thirty days they were there. I pleaded with him to open one of each type, put batteries in the remotes, and then play each remote so I could hear it.