Selection

Selection from The Tenant's Sister:

Near tears in the living room, Ruby hung up on Virginia and decided she wouldn't answer the phone again for a week. Make that two, she thought.

She walked toward the kitchen to reheat her cup of coffee as the phone began ringing again. Ruby heard footsteps and looked up to see Johnny descending the stairs, finishing the top buttons on his shirt. Not noticing Ruby, he went to pick up the receiver.

"Don't," Ruby said.

Johnny eyed the phone a moment, then looked to her.

"Your sister?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Ruby said as she finally gripped her cold cup of coffee. Johnny shook his head and knelt down to unplug the phone cord.

**END OF SELECTION**

This short excerpt from the novel The Tenant's Sister (1957) highlights several technological advances that have occurred since partway through the past century. The most prominent, naturally, is the use of the telephone. While it is still possible to hang up on a caller, modern devices do not have receivers. Also, automatic caller ID allows us to see previous callers in the "call log" display. And finally, the selection ends with a cord being unplugged, suggesting that unlike a phone charger being unplugged, the device will not receive further calls until it is plugged in again.

Sharp-eyed viewers will also note that modern coffee maintains perfect temperature for weeks, the buttons on shirts have now been replaced with self-fastening microfibers that inform the Superiors of our coordinates at all times, and siblings are not allowed in this fresh hell that we call everyday life.

Also, nobody is named Virginia anymore.