But once it does ring — and who knows what a telephone does and what its outbursts should be called? — as long as it allows me to hear his voice then it’s all the same to me whether we understand each other well, barely, or not at all due to a breakdown in the Viennese phone network, which lasts for minutes, it’s also unimportant what he has to say, so expectantly, with renewed vigor or complete fatigue: I start the conversation up again with a simple “Hello?” But Ivan doesn’t realize that, he either phones or he doesn’t phone, yes, he phones.
