i found her number written on a bathroom wall
"call for a good time" it said
i was down and needing something cheerful
so i did.
"who the fuck are you?" she asked when she answered the phone.
i told her my name
and she told me hers
and we got to talking about
life
and things.
before i knew it, we'd been talking for
three hours, or something like it.
she wouldn't tell me where she lived
so the next day
i called her back.
she answered her phone again
and this time she knew who i was.
we started to talk again, but suddenly she had to hang up
said it was her boyfriend.
so i hung up the phone for the night.
but the week after, i called back
she said he wasn’t home, and it was okay for her to talk
to me.
it brightened up my day
and she said it brightened hers too.
i kept calling
week after week
month after month
sometimes her boyfriend was there, but most times he wasn’t
but she never told me where she lived.
then one day she didn’t answer the phone
so i called back an hour later
and let it ring out.
the next day i tried again
and she still didn’t answer.
and the day after, she didn’t pick up her phone
but her boyfriend did
and he asked me if i was the fucker that stole his girlfriend.
i told him i didn’t even know where
she lived.
so i stopped calling. then someone called me.
it was her. she found me in the phone book
and wanted to know if she could stay with me awhile
and i said yes.
i waited up that night until my doorbell rang
somewhere around midnight
and she was there. i recognised her voice
but she had a black eye
and a cut lip
and i asked her if she was okay.
she said she’d be fine when she got back on her feet.
call me for a good time.