Page 9 - The Gluckman Occasional Number Three

Handset and Cradle

Ma and Pa Bell fell on hard times, and were forced to abandon
their children, Handset and Cradle. Ma took them out to the street
and put them in the trash. She forgot to remove Cradle’s cord,
however, and they easily followed it back home. Pa Bell hated to do
it, but he cut the cord, took them to the business district at night and
left them in an alley. Lost, they wandered hopelessly through dark
and deserted parts of town.
Suddenly they saw a beautiful electronics store, brightly lit and
beckoning. Once inside, they were grabbed by the manager. He
locked them in a storeroom and told Cradle she had to recharge
Handset’s battery until he was strong enough to be used for free.
They were very frightened: at home, all their time had been billed.
Desperate, they came up with a plan: Handset found another old
phone with a completely dead battery and substituted it in his place
during the day while he hid; at night he came back to Cradle and
continued to charge. The manager was fooled: he thought Handset
was a dud. Angry that his plan was not working, he threw the real
Handset into a dumpster behind the store.
The manager had forgotten all about Cradle, still jacked into a
phone line. Handset was charged and within range of Cradle, but he
couldn’t do his own dialing. So he befriended a rat who lived at the
bottom of the bin in a tiny house made of Styrofoam inserts.
Handset promised him a big piece of cheese if he would push the