“The phone rings.“Asshole,” she mutters. She picks it up.“Will you let me explain?”“No.” She hangs up.”

“I'll call you," he repeated."If you call me, I won't pick up the phone.""You will wait by the phone for my call, and when it rings, you will pick it up and you will speak to me in a civil manner. If you don't know how, ask someone.”

“She considered, maybe for the first time, how lucky she was to be able to pick up the phone and call her mother whenever she needed bad advice.”

“She was a girl who for a ringing phone dropped exactly nothing. She looked as if her phone had been ringing continually ever since she had reached puberty.”

“Phone service is back up and Devyn calls Issie, and then leaves to bring her over. Gram calls Mrs. Nix, the school secretary."She's a bear," Betty exclaims after she hangs up the phone. "I trust her."I don't even blink.”

“People with children and people with their own business always pick up a ringing phone.”