Wait for the Beep

Yes—was that the beep? I'm not quite sure I heard the beep—anyway—this message is for Posterity. I hope I have the right number. I might have written it down wrong—sorry— anyway—this is Mack Hackaway—you don't know me, I mean I'm not sure you do, but I was thinking— we actually have a lot in common—or we could. But for that to—you know, to work out, you'd have to make an effort. . . . Anyway, mostly what I wanted to say—just a suggestion— when you're reading books from, like, fifty years ago, or seventy-five years, you might need to do some digging—I mean not to just accept what's like shiny or famous. Right? I mean I know you wouldn't! But so this is just a reminder. Like, to keep in mind that what you really want might not be from some big New York house like Knopf or Norton or FSG or Random. In fact, frankly, there's some deep reasons why they— but you know that. You've proven it before. Okay. Well. Sorry this message was so long. Is there a cutoff? . . . I've heard you never return calls but I can't tell you how much I'd love to hear from you even just briefly! My number is—