@@@@@ "Ilse?" No answer for a long timeI began
@@@@@
"Ilse?"
No answer for a long timeI began to think the
disembodied someone in Providence had hung upI
realized I was sweating, and heavily enough so I
could smell myself, like a monkey on a branch
Then the same little refrain:
"Hel-lo?zit?"
"Ilse!"
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NothingI sensed her getting ready to hang up
Outside the wind was roaring and the surf was
pounding
"Miss Cookie!" I shouted"Miss Cookie, don't you
dare hang up this phone!"
That got throughdee?" There was a world
of wonder in that broken word
"If you're really DaddyI could
see her in her own kitchen, barefoot (as she had
been that day in Little Pink, looking at the
picture of the doll and the floating tennis balls),
head down, hair hanging around her face
Distracted, maybe almost to the point of madness
And for the first time I began to hate Perse as
well as fear herI want you to listen to
me-"
"Tell me my screen name There was a certain
shocked cunning in the voice now"If you're
really my Daddy, tell me my screen name
And if I didn't, I realized, she'd hang up
Because something had been at herSomething had
890
been fooling her, pawing her over, drawing its
webs around her
For a moment I couldn't remember that, either
You can do this, Kamen said, but Kamen was deadmy Daddy," said the distracted girl
on the other end of the line, and again she was on
the verge of hanging up
Think sideways, Kamen advised calmly
Even then, I thought, without knowing why I was
thinkin