Dial Tone

One of my first assignments as a newspaper photographer was to photograph the public phone from which a famous drug dealer had made his last call, that is, his last before the FBI and its thousands of agents captured him. The phone hung down on a busy corner in East Elmhurst. My editor wondered if I'd moved it there. I hadn't.

Saleem has surely used up all of his allotted phone calls. His compatriots, too. Besides, this phone is a block away from his shop.

But it's just a half block from the sofa so maybe drivers use it, though I doubt it. It's just that far around the corner to be noted.

It's prime locale is directly across the street from the new hotel going up. Lost tourists will spot it. But in this age of cell phones, will they use it? Or will it be another relic from another age, left and abandonned on a street in Blissville?