Two Longs and a Short

About this book

Spring, 1910. Halley's Comet is coming back, the newspapers say the Earth will pass through its poisonous tail, and in the prairie town of Ostberg, Kansas, eighteen-year-old Ida Lundquist has just taken over the night switchboard. From her stool above Engstrom's Hardware she can hear all sixty-one subscribers: the frightened widow who rings at midnight, the bank cashier who calls at strange hours, and Owen Teague, the night man at Carrick, whose voice at two in the morning is the best part of her day. Operators are not supposed to listen. Ida listens, and she is sure she understands every word. Then a smooth-talking comet-pill salesman rolls into town, and the respectable people of Ostberg start having secret meetings about money. Ida knows exactly what it means. She is certain. She has never been more certain in her life.