I hadn’t heard from Ben for weeks, so I didn’t know whether he still wanted to buy the old car I have sitting at home. I haven’t driven it for three years, but I kept it for a long time simply as a backup. Eventually, I kept it simply because I hadn’t gotten around to doing anything with it.
Ben caught me one day a few weeks ago as I got home. He wanted to know whether the car was for sale. We talked and he agreed to come back some evening before dark so he could try to get the car started. We wanted to coordinate our schedules by phone in the coming days, but he didn’t have a cell phone.
I finally saw Ben again this evening. It was after dark, so we couldn’t look at the car tonight, but he told me I could call him on his cell phone now.
He still couldn’t afford a phone, but he explained that someone he knew traded a “free government phone” to him in exchange for $8 worth of beer.

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