ABSTRACT
Hello? Yes, it's me now. So, what's up? What led you to call me, I wonder? I'm always the one who picks up the phone first, right? And I do all the talking and you just listen. So much so I can't help wondering at times whether you haven't softly set the receiver down on a table and gone off to do something else while I babble on. At those times I'd shut my mouth, glue the receiver to my ear, and wait. With you, my sister-in-law, such a refined, gracious lady and all, it was only natural that I heard not a sound. You're awful, my dear. How could you possibly listen to someone in such perfect silence? I'll bet you have no idea what it's like to sense that void on the other end of the line. It's like a ciiff. I mean, like a cliff where you should jump off or else somebody pushes you down. True. You're not the sort of person, I know, who'd ever do such a thing. If you really couldn't stand any more of my prattle, you'd just say, "That's enough, dear." When your mind's twisted, it's easy to toy with all kinds of weird notions, I'm afraid. But what I heard from the beyond the deathly stillness of that cliff was anything but tender.
