I have a surprise for you,” Christy announced the next morning at school. “I know how disappointed you’ll be to hear that instead of our usual grammar lesson, I have something special planned.”
From under her desk, Christy pulled out two constructions of wooden boxes, paper, and string. She’d made them early that morning.
“What in tarnation are those, Teacher?” Creed asked.
“These,” Christy said proudly, “are telephones. Well, they’re not really telephones. They’re practice telephones, until we can get the real thing. The Reverend Grantland is going to be putting up telephone poles and wires soon—hopefully, with the help of your fathers. When the new telephone is installed at the mission house, I want us all to be prepared.”
“Teacher?” Little Burl waved his hand frantically.
“Yes, Little Burl?” Christy asked as she placed one of the makeshift “telephones” on her desk.
“Can I call my granny on that newfangled contraption right now?”
“That’s not quite the idea, Little Burl,” Christy said. She carried the other telephone to the back of the room and set it on a desk. “These are just pretend. You see, the telephone works by carrying your voice over a long piece of wire.”
“How?” John Spencer asked.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know much about how they operate myself,” Christy confessed. “I could try to find out more, if you’d like, John.”
“Teacher?” Little Burl asked. “I figgered teachers knew just about everything in the world there is to know.”
“Wrong, Little Burl,” Creed said. “Preachers know just about everything.”
“You’re both wrong,” said Clara Spencer. “In my house, it’s my ma who knows everything. Just ask my pa.”
Christy laughed. “Back to the subject, please. This box represents the telephone machine itself. The string is a wire. This paper cone is where you talk—the mouthpiece. And this other paper cone connected to the string is the earpiece where you listen.”
“It’s pure magic, it is!” Ruby Mae exclaimed.
“Now, the phones are really going to be connected by miles and miles of wires,” Christy continued. “But I don’t have enough string to spare for that, so you’ll have to use your imaginations.”
“Where do the wires go, Teacher?” Creed asked.
“Well, all over, Creed. But because Cutter Gap is in such a hard-to-reach place, with lots of high mountains, it’s taken us longer to get connected.”
Christy didn’t add the other reason—that this area had simply been too poor to afford the luxury of telephones.
“My pa says those new-fangled contraptions is a heap o’ nonsense.”
Christy looked up in surprise. The low voice belonged to Lundy Taylor, a seventeen-year-old bully with a nose for trouble. Christy had suffered through her share of run-ins with his father, Bird’s-Eye. Bird’s-Eye made and sold illegal liquor—“moonshine.” And whenever a fight broke out in Cutter Gap, you could always count on Bird’s-Eye Taylor to be involved.
“Why do you think your father feels that way, Lundy?” Christy asked.
Lundy shrugged. He was a big boy, with dark, messy hair and a constant sneer. “Pa says we got along just fine and dandy without no telephones for as long as his pa and his great-grandpa was around. Says it’s just a way for you mission folks to sneak in with your wires and poles and poke around where you don’t belong.”
“But Lundy, that’s not the reason for the telephones at all. Suppose we desperately needed supplies or medical help? The telephone is a wonderful invention, truly it is.”
Lundy rolled his eyes. “Can’t trick my pa any sooner ’n you can catch a weasel asleep.”
“Maybe so. But tell him to give this a chance,” Christy said. “Now, who would like to be the first to try out the telephone?”
The classroom went wild. “Ruby Mae and Clara. How about you two?”
Each girl took her place at one of the “telephones” while the others watched, mesmerized.
“Now, Ruby Mae, I want you to pick up the receiver—that’s the little cone-shaped thing. Put it next to your ear.”
Ruby Mae did as she was told. “Cain’t hear a thing, Miz Christy.”
“Remember, these are just imaginary telephones, Ruby Mae.”
“I know. I was just imaginin’ I couldn’t hear a thing.”
“Next, turn the crank on the right side of the telephone.”
“Ain’t no crank.”
“I know. You have to pretend.”
Dutifully, Ruby Mae made a circular motion with her hand.
“Excellent,” Christy said. “Now, in a moment, you’ll hear the operator’s voice through the receiver. That’s me.”
Christy went behind the blackboard and pinched her nose. “El Pano operator,” she said in a nasal voice, sending the class into a fit of giggles. “To whom would you like to speak?”
Ruby Mae considered. “I’d be tickled pink to speak to President Taft.”
“No, Ruby Mae!” Clara cried. “You got to talk to me, ’cause I’m the one with the phone!”
“I was imaginin’,” Ruby Mae said. “After all, it’s a purty sure thing President Taft’s got himself a fine telephone. Probably one made o’ gold. But if’n you’re goin’ to get all sore about it, I’ll talk to you instead.”
Ruby Mae peeked behind the chalkboard. “I don’t rightly see as I need a telephone to speak to Clara, Miz Christy. Seein’ as she’s standin’ right over yonder, clear as day.”
“Imagine that Clara’s in El Pano, miles away. You’re here at the mission, and you want to tell her something very important. As the operator, it’s my job to connect your phone to hers. I’ll plug in the right wire to my switchboard, and, as if by magic . . .” Christy grinned. “R-I-N-G, R-I-N-G!!”
“Are you there?” Clara asked, holding the earpiece to her mouth.
“That’s the receiver, Clara. And say ‘hello’ when you pick up the telephone. Try again.”
“Hello? Is that you, Ruby Mae?” Clara said, this time speaking into the paper mouthpiece.
“It’s me! Ruby Mae!” Ruby Mae cried, caught up in the fantasy. “And have I got news for you! The Boggin’s a-hauntin’ us. And . . . let’s see. Last week in church, Granny O’Teale fell asleep and snored so loud the preacher said she coulda purt-near waked the dead. And Doctor MacNeill brought Miz Christy pink flowers the other day, for no reason. ’Ceptin’ o’ course he’s sweet on her. . . .”
Christy laughed. “That’s probably enough about my social life,” she said. She should have known that Ruby Mae, Cutter Gap’s biggest busybody, would instantly fall in love with the telephone.
Christy watched in satisfaction as the two girls prattled on. The grammar lesson could wait. For the rest of the day, the children took turns playing on the pretend telephones. Even Lundy gave it a try. Christy had rarely been as happy with one of her lessons. She might not have much in the way of supplies. But sometimes a little ingenuity was all it took to create excitement about learning.