By seven the square booth has already set out its smallest waiting room. Dial tones take a seat inside the receiver, nod to the waiting coin, and only then offer a single hello.
We asked at the kiosk. "I put in a coin and did not hurry," said a neighbor with a paper bag of pears. "The tone sat down first. It would not speak until the coin had been nodded to. I got one hello, and it lasted all the way home."
The next morning a sparrow returned, sat through a second greeting on the roof, and flew off looking as if it had been introduced to the whole street.