“It all started on Monday morning when several citizens of Tumbler City noticed that the sky didn't look quite right,” started the man on the TV.
“I hate Days of Our Lives reruns!” exclaimed Lean as she turned off the TV.
Lean picked up her phone to call her friend, Bridge, but then she stopped herself. She dialed a random number and waited. One ring, two rings, three rings... “Hello?” said an old man's voice.
“Hello,” Lean said.
“Hello?” said the old man.
“Hello,”
“Hello?”
“Hello,”
“Hello?”
“Good-bye!”
“Hello? What? Button your lip, Kid. Donut be calling me no more. Why, back in my day we didn't do prank calls. As a matter of fact we didn't have telephones back then. None of this prank calling. You must think your life is a bowl of cherries. Well, if you heard some of my war stories you would get butterflies in your stomach. You must be the black sheep of the family, you have to pull pranks on your elders to feel important. Well, your barking up the wrong tree, Little One...” the old man went on and on. The sad thing is he could have saved it for a rainy day. Lean hung up the phone when he said something about not having phones when he was young.
Lean tried calling the old man again but it was busy. She figured he was still talking to himself, so she just called Summer. They chewed the fat until almost three in the morning and finally Bee said that they should call it a day. Some say that blood is thicker than water but Bridge and Lean are way closer than they are with their families. Once in a blue moon they get mad at each other but they always are friends minutes after. A couple minutes later Lean tried the old man's phone number again. It was still busy.
* * * *
“Hey, Lena,” Bee said one Friday afternoon.
“Yeah,” Lena said. She was bored on this dog day of summer and being bored always made her tired.
“Are you gonna play at the finals?” She was always asking this and it was kind of getting old.
“Yes, I told you.”
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