“You can put it on hold for up to four hours.”

It’s the only button on the handset that is fluorescent yellow.  It’s an otherwise traditional wireless phone.  But it is a special button.  It’s a prototype designed by her cousin who shunned marriage and went to MIT instead.  The button mutes the voice of the caller but is sensitive to silent gaps and  inflections that may indicate a question has been asked.  Maria has been secretly testing it on her mother-in-law for weeks.  There is a faint vibration that alerts her when a response is expected.    Maria has perfected the responses.  She ‘hmmms’ and waits when unsure what the answer should be and Mary invariably repeats the required answer as a question.  Alternately Maria simply asks her to repeat the last  part because “the baby monitor created interference”.  She assures her cousin it works perfectly.  They will make a lot of money.

8 min. on 5.16.13 @ Dig Inn on E.17th St.

quote heard on L.E.S. NYC