She always imagined their voices entangled somewhere in the wires when they spoke, caught up in a grid she didn’t fully understand, passing back and forth. Once the calls were disconnected, she imagined the echoes...

I don’t like hello. It makes me sound like I have dementia, like I’ve never heard a phone ring before and I don’t know what’s supposed to happen next. Hello?

Texting and phone calls, fireworks, blends, café au lait, and music. Yesterday’s television. Work and beer. The neighbor’s dog, or those strange flowers, the way it smells at Maisen. Those ordinary things I talk about...

Life is mysterious as well as vulgar.

Don’t let your phone calls, online chats, and other trivial activities manage you. You have to manage them because they don’t have the dreams to fulfill; you have the dreams.