My Friend, the Telephone Operator

1     When I was quite young, my family had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood.     Soon I discovered that somewhere inside that wonderful device lived an amazing person — her name was “Information Please” and there was nothing she did not know. My mother could ask her for anybody’s number; when our clock stopped, Information Please gave us the correct time at once.

2      One day while my mother was visiting a neighbor,I hit my finger with a hammer. The pain was terrible and  there was no one home to offer sympathy. So I ran for the telephone and said “Information Please” into the mouthpiece. After a moment, a small, clear voice spoke into my ear: Information.”

3      “I hurt my finger…” I cried into the phone.

4      “Isn’t your mother home?” came the question.

5      “Nobody’s home but me,” I sobbed.

6      “Are you bleeding?”

7      “No,” I replied, “I hit it with the hammer and it hurts.”

8      “Can you open your fridge?” she asked. I said I could. “Then break a little piece of ice and put it on your finger. That will stop the hurt. And don’t cry. You’ll be all right.”

9      After that , I called Information Please for everything. I asked her for help with my lessons. I even called her for comfort because my pet bird died. When I was nine, we moved from Seattle to Boston and I missed my friend deeply.    Information Please belonged to the old home, and I never thought of trying the new phone on a small table in the hall.

10      Many years later, on my way to college, my plane landed at Seattle. At the airport, without thinking what I was doing, I dialed my hometown operator and said,“Information Please.”

11      Then I heard again the small, clear voice I knew so well: “Information.”

12      I hadn’t planned this, but I heard myself saying.“Could you tell me please, how to spell the word ‘fix’?”

13      There was a long pause. Then came the softly spoken answer. “I guess,” said she, “that your finger must have gotten better by now.”

14      I laughed. “So it’s really still you,” I said.     “I wonder if you have any idea how much you meant to me during all that time.”

15      “I wonder,” she replied, “if you know how much you meant to me. I never had any children, and I used to look forward to your calls.”