(tracking endless variations of numbers, easier. sequences and area codes. some strange and foreign. some discovered and decoded. some seemingly improbable and impossible, though he had written them nonetheless. he had scratched out all that flooded in. a longer list of empty numbers - and now taken ones - voices connecting upon the other end. sometimes machine, sometimes human. sometimes desperate for conversation - though he dodged them all with quick and polite excuses. claims of wrong numbers. mistakes.)
and there had been an influx of calls. of questions. (and grumblings from rooms over, as they were hung-up upon. again and again. only to be copied down later. only to be written out later. recorded in logs and notebooks. when he was alone. when he knew it easiest to take upon research - particularly for this one - when alone.)
and so, when this number came to be next - he called it. habitually marking patterns. finding clues. prying information from what he assumed likely - to make this community more avoidable. more readily avoidable.
to allow him to (with much more ease) focus upon the end. ]
( phone call. )
(tracking endless variations of numbers, easier. sequences and area codes. some strange and foreign. some discovered and decoded. some seemingly improbable and impossible, though he had written them nonetheless. he had scratched out all that flooded in. a longer list of empty numbers - and now taken ones - voices connecting upon the other end. sometimes machine, sometimes human. sometimes desperate for conversation - though he dodged them all with quick and polite excuses. claims of wrong numbers. mistakes.)
and there had been an influx of calls. of questions. (and grumblings from rooms over, as they were hung-up upon. again and again. only to be copied down later. only to be written out later. recorded in logs and notebooks. when he was alone. when he knew it easiest to take upon research - particularly for this one - when alone.)
and so, when this number came to be next - he called it. habitually marking patterns. finding clues. prying information from what he assumed likely - to make this community more avoidable. more readily avoidable.
to allow him to (with much more ease) focus upon the end. ]