this has probably been done before

"Hello. Yes. Who is this?" "Ma'am, I am standing right in front of you. I am not on your phone." "Hello?" The woman meandered past scores of hurried bodies and somehow made it across two lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic while remaining focused on something else entirely. If it wasn't for her complete lack of purpose, her aggressive walk could not have qualified as meandering. She took a seat at a nearby bus stop & again spoke into her cellphone, which had lost its charge nearly an hour ago. She never noticed *v* sitting on the bench behind her. "Can we talk?" "I think you have the wrong number." "Can we talk anyway?" "Sure." "You're the only one I feel any connection with. There has to be a reason we're talking." "I'm pretty sure you have the wrong number." "All these people- who do you suppose they're talking to?" "I have no idea." "It's like...you shut everyone out for that one person...then lose that connection eventually." The two went on like this for several more minutes before the woman meandered off, thinking she had another phone call. Her behavior was not entirely insane, all things considered. It had been one week since most Americans had lost their coverage, due to the economic difficulties brought on by the Crisis. People had continued to walk around w/ their phones pressed against their sore ears, typing out text messages w/ calloused fingers, oblivious to their lack of service. They mistook one's another's voices for the voices that should have been on the other end of their phones & everyone conversed entirely by accident.