Telephone Test

Your test, a woman in a white dress says to me, is very simple. Simply dial your grandmother on the telephone. She hands me a telephone. I begin to dial, 2-2-4-9-0-8-7 saying the numbers aloud in my head, but I mess them up, 2-2-4-9-8-0-7, or loop the numbers, 2-2-4-9-2-2-4, and each time I forget where I am and have to begin again. My fingers are dancing over the keys. My eyes are getting tired. The number 8 looks a lot like the number 9. – What will happen if I fail this test? I finally ask her, exasperated. – That depends, she says, on when you realize that your grandmother is dead.