"He. . ." I paused. "He can’t come to the phone right now. May I take your name and number?"
"Listen lady," he mumbled impatiently. "I don’t do messages. I call once, and that is all. If he’s not here, I’ll simply dial someone else."
My mind was racing. With an audible stutter I replied, "P-p-pardon me for asking, b-but I thought Opportunity was sup-pos-supposed to knock?"
He sighed. "Can you imagine the hassle of walking door to door? Really, now... that’s so impractical. That may have been how things were done in the olden days, but this is the 90’s now. In fact, this is one of the last phone calls I plan on making in my career. Telemarketing simply isn’t the same as it used to be; e-mail is much faster. Why don’t you have the Internet?" Opportunity asked.
I shrugged my shoulders, a rather useless gesture for he couldn’t see what I was doing at my end of the line. "Father won’t allow it. He thinks the Internet is a terrible place... all those false prophets preaching hate and selling skin. The net just isn’t the place for a good Christian girl."
At the other end of the line, Opportunity nodded. "He has a legitimate point, I suppose..." His words trailed off for a moment. "Listen lady, I need to run. Places to go, people to see. Just tell your father that I called, okay?"
I smiled to myself. "I will. Good-bye."
"Good-bye," he replied.
My hand, no longer trembling, slowly lowered the receiver to its cradle. Faintly, I heard Opportunity call out again.
"Lady?" he asked.
"Yes?"
"Have a nice day."
