روفس

RUFUS

9:41 a.m.

We stumble across seven abandoned pay phones in some ditch, underneath a highway leading north toward the Queensboro Bridge.

“We gotta go in there.”

Mateo is about to protest, but I hold up my finger, shutting that down real fast.

I drop my bike on the ground, and we crawl through an opening in the chain-link fence. There are rusty pipes, stuffed garbage bags that smell like old food and shit, and trails of blackened gum snaking around the pay phones. There’s graffiti of a Pepsi bottle beating the crap out of a Coca-Cola bottle; I take a picture, upload it to Instagram, and tag Malcolm so he knows he was with me on my End Day.

“It’s like a graveyard,” Mateo says. He picks up a pair of sneakers.

“If you find any toes in there, we’re jetting,” I say.

Mateo inspects the insides of the sneakers. “No toes or other body parts.” He drops the sneakers. “Last year I bumped into this guy with a bloody nose and no sneakers.” “Homeless dude?”

“Nope. He was our age. He got beat up and robbed so I gave him my sneakers.” “Of course you did,” I say. “They don’t make them like you.” “Oh, I wasn’t looking for a compliment. Sorry. I’m curious what he’s up to now. Doubt I’d recognize him since he had so much blood on his face.” Mateo shakes his head, like it’ll make the memory go away.

I crouch over one pay phone, and in blue Sharpie there’s a message by where the receiver used to be: I MISS YOU, LENA. CALL ME BACK.

Pretty damn hard for Lena to call you back, Person, without an actual phone.

“This is a crazy find,” I say, mad lit as I move on to the next pay phone. “I feel like Indiana Jones right now.” Mateo smiles my way. “What?” “I watched those movies obsessively as a kid,” Mateo says. “Forgot about it until now.” He tells me stories about how his dad would hide treasure around the apartment—how the treasure was always a jar of quarters they used for laundry. Mateo would wear his cowboy hat from his Woody costume and use a shoelace as a lasso. Whenever he got close to finding the jar, his dad would put on this Mexican mask a neighbor bought him and he would throw Mateo onto the couch for an epic fight.

“That’s awesome. Your pops sounds cool.”

“I got lucky,” Mateo says. “Anyway, I hijacked your moment. Sorry.” “Nah, you’re fine. It’s not some huge, big, worldly moment. I’m not about to go off on how removing pay phones from street corners is the start of universal disconnection or some nonsense like that. I think this is just really dope.” I snap some photos with my phone. “It is crazy, though, right? Pay phones are gonna stop being a thing. I don’t even know anyone’s phone number.” “I only know Dad’s and Lidia’s,” Mateo says.

“If I was locked up behind bars, I would’ve been extra screwed. Knowing someone’s number isn’t gonna matter anyway. You’ll no longer be a quarter away from calling someone.” I hold up my phone. “I’m not even using a real camera! Cameras that use film are going extinct too, watch.” “Post offices and handwritten letters are next,” Mateo says.

“Movie rental stores and DVD players,” I say.

“Landlines and answering machines,” he says.

“Newspapers,” I say. “Clocks and wristwatches. I’m sure someone’s working on a product for us to automatically know the time.” “Physical books and libraries. Not anytime soon, but eventually, right?” Mateo is quiet, probably thinking about those Scorpius Hawthorne books he mentioned in his profile. “Can’t forget about all the endangered animals.” I definitely forgot about them. “You’re right. You’re totally right. It’s all going away, everyone and everything is dying. Humans suck, man. We think we’re so damn indestructible and infinite because we can think and take care of ourselves, unlike pay phones or books, but I bet the dinosaurs thought they’d rule forever too.” “We never act,” Mateo says. “Only react once we realize the clock is ticking.” He gestures to himself. “Exhibit A.” “Guess that marks us next on the list,” I say. “Before the newspapers and clocks and wristwatches and libraries.” I lead us out through the fence and turn around. “But you do know no one actually uses landlines anymore, right?”