Direct Wire

Two small-time bookmakers who operate a cigar-store front rely on a supposedly out-of-order telephone to run their betting business and post a sign declaring they have enlisted despite previously using medical excuses to avoid service. A narrator recounts their habitual dodges and the morning the booth begins to receive uncanny calls that bypass the telephone company. An anonymous husky voice requests to speak with Hitler and Mussolini, unsettling the partners and provoking comic bewilderment. The piece blends wartime satire of small-time hustlers with a mounting mystery centered on the mysterious telephone contact.