I received a new letter from the electric company, saying they would have someone call me to talk about whether I was having trouble paying for my electricity and what might be done about it.

And someone had written in the margin: "PS, your tree sounds like a pawpaw."

Dear Electric Company (I wrote back),

Thank you for your offer to phone. I am enclosing a piece of string for this purpose. If you could kindly tie your end to a coffee can, and mail the other end back to me, I have a coffee can of my own that's all ready to be hooked up. I will connect it and await your call.

I stopped by the farm stand, picked up the nearly empty coffee can, and listened to the dial tone. It sounded like an ocean, and two quarters.