"Cell Phone"
"The thug had thrown the cell phone into the street half a block
down. Please don’t let it have been run over, she thought, please.
She arrived panting. It was there. It was lying in the street, a
little off the centerline. It hadn’t been run over yet. The traffic was
heavy here; how could she reach it? She waited impatiently for a break
in the cars. She was two lanes from it. It was sixteen feet away and she
couldn’t reach it. Every car that passed she marked the space between
the wheels and the phone. One foot, six inches, three. ‘The toad
beneath the harrow knows/where every separate tooth point goes.’
The cars were coming too fast. If she stepped out they wouldn’t stop in
time.
And now the phone was ringing – ringing as it lay in the street. It
must be Darek. Only Darek called her. There was a slight opening
between the cars. She leapt off the sidewalk, and swung towards the
centerline. The phone was there, she was dropping her crutch,
reaching for it, holding it up to her ear as the cars went by on either
side, horns shrieking. She couldn’t hear. A text message. She stared at
the screen: ‘this is ERA with a promotional offer for your cell phone
account…’ It was an advertisement. She had risked her life for an
advertisement."
About The Author
Michelle Granas was born in Alaska; but currently divides her time between Oregon and Poland. She has degrees in philosophy and comparative literature, but now works s a translator. Over the past dozen years she has translated for many of Poland's major politicians and writers, including short pieces for the Nobel Prize winner Lech Walesa and Nobel Prize nominee Ryszard Kapuscinski.
About The Book
Although set in Poland, this is a story that could happen anywhere, as young democracies struggle against the temptations of covert operations and older democracies sometimes lead them astray.
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