"phonecalls from brian tolle"

Janet Kuypers

Deep South v.2 n.2 (Winter, 1996)

Copyright (c) 1996 by Janet Kuypers, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the New Zealand Copyright Act 1962. It may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that the journal is notified. This consent does not extend to other kinds of copying, such as copying for general distribution, for advertising or promotional purposes, for creating new collective works, or for resale. For such uses, written permission of the author and the notification of the journal are required. Write to Deep South, Department of English, University of Otago, P. O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand.

I came home the other day to find three messages on my answering machine, each nearly two minutes long. They were all from my friend Brian Tolle, who lives in Indiana and is working on a film. Now, Brian is a friend of mine from high school, in fact, I asked him to go to the prom with me as friends, but he turned me down, saying he wanted to save the experience of prom for someone he was dating. But that was eight years ago, I went to the prom anyway, without him, but I still think it would have been more fun if he was my date and not Kevin Farrar.

Well I got home the other night and had these messages on my machine and they were all from Brian Tolle, and I listen to the first one: and he says "I'm sorry I haven't called you in so long, and I hope you don't hate me because I love you, and I've moved, and that's my roommate you hear in the background, I don't think you met him before but he knows who you are and he hears your voice on my answering machine and he thinks you have a sexy voice"

and then he says "oh, I really hope you don't hate me because I didn't mean to not call, there's just a lot going on, and oh, I have a new email address so write to me, and I love you and I hope you're not mad and I might be coming up to visit in Chicago. Well, anyway, call me if you don't hate me, I love you."

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