MIGHT AS WELL.... (PART 1)

By: Dottie Pond Rothschild

He read it in the local paper, but Joey had to check it out for himself. Could be his manic leanings or simply his innate tendency toward inquiry, the really getting inside of a thing to see how it works, regardless whether it be a person or a machine.

The thing was, they installed four phones, not just one, on the sprawling span of the Tappen Zee Bridge and Joey had questions. The papers were always so fucking vague - who came up with these anemic questions? Yet they were the professionals, barely brushing up against the real material. He saw the importance of rolling up his sleeves and delving his hands into the guts of a story, sloshing around in the substance of the thing.

Joey's head was a piaya of perplexity, a stew of unanswered questions. For instance, did the phones only call the suicide hotline? Or say could you like stop your car on the way to Jersey and order a pizza? How bout this - did you need a quarter or a credit card number or did you merely pick up the phone and your personal savior was waiting on the other end?

And what about location? Was there a bank of four phones in the center, the highest, and lets face it, the choicest spot on the bridge OR were they equally dispersed across the entire span, so if one had second thoughts on the way to the prime spots, they could just give a ring. Maybe studies were done and it was determined that more people jumped from the Jersey side, so they put two on the Jersey side, and only one in the center and one on the New York side. And, being a New Yorker, was this a bone of contention or a point of pride?

How about if you were just kinda depressed but had no real intention of ending it- could you use the phone, you know, just to talk? A little low end, free therapy? Maybe say you were thinking about it- just to keep them on the line...

Indeed there were countless unaddressed questions. He would bet there would be others out there too, just like him, trying to find some real answers.