Long-Distance Call (Details)
citation: Collier's, November 6, 1948, 122(19):14-15, 70-73
alias: None
teaser: Tim Ryan wasn't holding out any secrets on his wife. So he dutifully called her long-distance to report on his date with a beautiful brunette
summary: With his wife Eve away in Philadelphia visiting her sister, Timberlake Ryan is bored being alone in New York on a Friday night. He telephones Eve, pretending to be drunk, and in trouble. When the charade ends, Eve suggests Tim take a widowed friend, Nancy Blatchford, dancing.
Annoyed that Eve trusts him so completely she could suggest an evening on the town for him with another woman, Tim instead calls Ginnie Haley, a commercial artist where he works. She agrees to meet him at a nearby bar.
Over drinks, Tim reminisces about a childhood friend who dated an older woman in New York, and imagines dressing in the style of Revolutionary America. Obviously enjoying each other's company, they decide to go to another bar to dance the rumba.
They feel as though they're in their own world, where The
conversation after two in the morning is always beautifully lucid and filled
with diamond clear subtleties perfectly expressed and instantly understood.
Tim
suggests a drive in Central Park. Before they leave, he again telephones
Eve, telling her his plans, but hangs up before she can ask too many
questions.
With the radio on, Tim and Ginnie drive slowly through Central Park, then coast to a stop beneath a low overhanging tree where Tim kisses Ginnie. They drive on, and Tim proposes they drive to Philadelphia to pick-up his wife, Eve.
The trip the three made on the road back to New York was fun.
words: 4,320
genre: Timberlake Ryan, Slice-of-Life
similar: Manhattan Idyl, I'm Mad at You, Breakfast in Bed, The Little Courtesies, Week-End Genius, My Cigarette Loves Your Cigarette, One-Man Show, Sounds in the Night, Man of the Cocktail Hour, Tattletale Tape; You Haven't Changed a Bit, Sneak Preview, I Like It This Way, Husband at Home, Legal and Tender, Rainy Sunday, Expression of Love, Vive la Différence, Bedtime Story, Take One Rainy Night, Old Enough for Love, The Sunny Side of the Street, No Time for the Billiard Ballet
people: Timberlake Ryan, Eve Ryan, the Leggetts, Nancy Blatchford, Ginnie (Virginia) Haley
places: New York, NY: Central Park; Philadelphia, PA
comments: Forthcoming