“Yes. My name is Activist 346 of TWA, the Third World Army.”

He winked at Ali.

Penny clicked. “Fight the Good Fight.”

Ali clicked. Her weeping fake fireman.

Tamy clicked and regretted putting him through that time. She’d been given a raise following the show but it didn’t seem worth it now.

173

I would’ve clicked too but I couldn’t hear my radio over the noise of the airplane. And I was too scared to think of it. Scared scared scared.

172

Clara wondered if someone had made a Taking Hostages tape. Or if her ex-fireman was doing other experiments on the sly. If so, then she reckoned there was some competition out there.

171

“What’s your name?” asked Penny Lock.

“You don’t need to know my name.”

“I thought it might be nice for the listeners to know your name.”

“Nice? What do you mean nice?”

“Well, it’s nice to know people’s names.”

“What’s nice about it?”

“It’s just nice.”

“Nice. Jeez.”

“Names is for tombstones, isn’t it?” said Ali.

“Yeah,” said my brother, smiling.

“We know Dr. Frankburg’s name,” said Penny.

“Sure we do,” said my brother, winking again.

“So what’s yours?”

“You don’t need to know my fucking name.”

Tamy instinctively went for the mute switch.

“Stay still, what are you doing?”

“Sorry,” said Tamy. “I didn’t think. I have to blank out swearing. Station policy.”

“Don’t touch anything. Leave the switches alone.”

“I’m sorry.”

170

John stared at the guy with the gun in his hand. Saw how alive his eyes were. How quick and twitchy his movements were. How he kept switching the gun from hand to hand to wipe the sweat off his palms and onto his coat. John thought he should do that too, in his act, switch the gun from hand to hand. And sweat more.

“What do you think we should do?” asked John in a whisper.

“Tell the magic guy to shut up,” said my brother.

“Sorry,” said John.

“Why are you here anyway?”

“This is John, he’s looking for his wife.”

“Hello, we met in the lobby . . .” said John.

“You’re English?”

“Yes.”

“Does your wife work here?”

“No.”

“Then why are you looking for her here?”

“She rang in.”

“She rang in from somewhere else, right?”

“Yes.”

“So why are you looking for her here?”

“Um . . .”

“John was ringing the show about his missing wife but got cut off when his friend jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge.”

“She didn’t jump,” said John.

“Didn’t she?” said Penny.

“Beth didn’t jump?” said my brother.

“No.”

“That’s good,” said Ali.

“That’s good,” said Penny.

“Did you stop her from jumping?” asked my brother.

“No, she just decided not to,” said John.

“That’s good because she wouldn’t have thanked you if you’d tried to stop her.”

“I didn’t.”

“That’s good.”

169