Hehesitated."Iwouldn'tmind… havingafriendagain." Hisvoicesoundedalittletentative.
， herelatedhismemoriesofWorldWarIandII， .
， becauseI， too， ， ， ， whichIattendedatnight.
'dhadwithasupervisor， Itoldmynewfriend，"IthinkI'vehaditwithhim."
"What'stherush？" Adolfcautioned."， ， thenyoucantalktohim."
Therewasalongsilence."Youknow，" hesaidsoftly， "IamtalkingtoyoujustthewayI'—'retooyoungtoknowhowthatfeels."
No， Iwasn't.I'dalwayswantedafamily—'tsayanything， afraidIwouldn'tbeabletoholdbackthehurtI'dfeltforsolong.
Oneevening， ， ， Iknew.
We'dbeentalkingonthephoneforfourmonthsnow， .
Ididn''.Apartment1H， some20feetfromwhereIstood.
？ '， Iknockedharder.
Thepostmanlookedupfromhissorting."Noone'sthere，" hesaid.
"Yeah，" Isaid， feelingalittlefoolish."Ifheansweredhisdoorthewayheanswershisphone， thismaytakeallday."
"Areyouarelativeorsomething？"
"No， justafriend."
"I'mreallysorry，" hesaidquietly， "."
Died？ Adolf？ Foramoment， Icouldn'， pullingmyselftogether， ， misty-eyed.
Then， roundingthecorner， Isawachurch， andalinefromtheOldTestamentleapedintomymind： ， ， forthefirsttime， ， andIknewthiswouldmakeiteveneasierthenexttime， ， 'sgrowlyvoiceshouting， "Wrongnumber！" ThenIheardhimaskingwhyIwantedtocallagain.
"Becauseyoumattered， Adolf，" Isaidaloudtonoone."BecauseIwasyourfriend."
， Ilookedovermyshoulder."Adolf，" Iwhispered， "Ididn'."
