[Telephone Call]

Pay phone on Paul Bunyan Drive at Fourth Street, June 16, 1999, 1:15 P.M.

MAN: Uh . . . hello?

ANDREA: Hi. I’m looking for Ryan. Is he there?

MAN: Um . . . Ryan who?

ANDREA: Ryan Coates.

MAN: I guess I’ll check.

Ryan? Is Ryan Copes here?

[muffled conversation, shuffling of receiver]

BOY: Hello?

ANDREA: Where are you, Ryan? What the fuck are you doing?

BOY: Um . . . (clears throat, sighs)

ANDREA: You know, it’s one thing for you to pull your own vanishing act, but did you really have to take the fucking cat?

BOY: Edith Head?

ANDREA: Ry?

BOY: (drops voice) Mmm-hmm?

ANDREA: Hold on. I’m not in the mood to fuck around. Who is this?

BOY: Joey. I’m a friend of Ryan.

ANDREA: Oh really. Are you in a band too or something?

JOEY: Yes?

ANDREA: Of course. What band?

[pause]

JOEY: The Buzzcocks.

ANDREA: Please don’t fuck with me.

JOEY: I’m sorry. It was the first thing I could think of.

ANDREA: Who are you really?

JOEY: Joey. I’m in high school. I work at Dairy Queen.

ANDREA: But you know Edith Head.

JOEY: Yeah, I love Edith Head. We’re homies. Leah and Everett and I feed her hot dogs.

ANDREA: Oh. Do you have her now?

JOEY: No, she stays in Ryan’s van. Except when he walks her.

ANDREA: He walks her.

JOEY: Yeah. At first when he put the harness on, she walked backward to try to get out of it.

ANDREA: (unable to suppress laugh) Oh my god.

JOEY: Now she walks like an alligator.

ANDREA: What the—never mind. Is Ryan there? Can I talk to him?

JOEY: Mmm . . . I don’t see his van right now.

ANDREA: Will you see him soon?

JOEY: I hope so. It’s been a couple days.

ANDREA: Just tell him to call Andrea, will you?

JOEY: What number?

ANDREA: He knows the number.

JOEY: Who are you?

[pause]

ANDREA: He hasn’t said?

JOEY: No.

ANDREA: You better ask him.