I was still angry, mainly because he hadn’t asked my permission. “Go ahead,” I told the man, “since you’re here.”

“It’ll be a twenty-­five dollar deposit.”

“All right.”

“It will take a while. I’ll have to run a line in here from the road.”

“We’re in no hurry.” I closed the door and turned to Duff. “Where did you make the call to the telephone company?”

“From Mrs. Reddy’s. I went down there this morning before Franny and I went to the hospital.”

“Very convenient. Mrs. Reddy and the Webers were right there to confirm the order when the telephone company called back. And did you discuss our hiring Stephanie as a nurse too?”

“Mrs. Reddy mentioned it. She says that Stephanie knows all about taking care of patients with broken hips. She had a case just like Dad’s last spring.”

“Shut up.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Go to your room. You’re supposed to be sleeping.”

“Yes ma’am.” He started up the stairs, then paused. His eyes really were tearful now. “If Dad should get worse, Mom, and the hospital wanted to reach us quickly . . .”

My eyes were filling too. “You might at least have told me about it,” I said.

“I forgot.”

Duff forget? I had never known him to forget anything, but I didn’t doubt his word then.

“All right, we have a telephone and let’s be grateful for it. Even if it’s only for a few days, it’s worth whatever it costs.”

“That’s the way I felt.” He sniffled a little, took off his glasses and wiped them with his shirttail and went up the stairs.

The telephone was installed by mid-­afternoon. Our first caller was Mrs. Reddy, who wanted to express her joy at our being able to communicate with the outside world. The next caller was Jack, sounding a bit weak but definitely in good spirits. It seemed that Mrs. Reddy had taken the liberty of telling him the good news about the telephone. We also learned that we should be grateful to Emil Weber who had a friend at the telephone company. Otherwise several months might have elapsed between the request and the installation.

We had a late lunch and then went back to the hospital and spent the rest of the afternoon with Jack. Franny had come out of her shell somewhat (although I remembered later that she never engaged in any direct conversation with Duff) and Duff was positively gabby. I think he must have talked more to us on that afternoon than he had for the entire previous month.