The Later Journeys - 16. Person to Person
Previous chapter Once we were all assembled back in the kitchen, Ben quietly asked Warren if he might have a word in private. The two of them disappeared back down the hall. A moment later, I heard a chuckle from Warren and their voices combined in discussion. Then they came back, but no one offered any explanation. Warren was smiling. Trevor had a cloth bag with him; he set it on the table and brought forth the contents. It was a black Bakelite rotary-dial telephone, like the one I remembered my grandparents having. I thought I might even remember how to operate it. Trevor untangled the long cord, reached behind him and plugged the phone into a jack. He lifted the earpiece and we could all hear the faint humming of a dial tone. Without saying anything, he rotary-dialed a 1, followed by a 10-digit number, listened for a moment, then replaced the receiver. “All right,” he said. “Ben, this is a telephone. This morning you learned about one of the earlier modes of communication...