Vera asked an electrician to install a doorbell she could hear from her back garden.
Her old bell made a small embarrassed buzz in the hall. By the time Vera reached the front door, visitors had either left or developed strong opinions about her hearing.
The electrician, Lee, brought a wireless model with thirty different sounds.
“Thirty?” Vera said. “I only have about six visitors.”
He fitted the button, put the receiver in the kitchen, and played the first sound. It was a cheerful chime. Vera said it reminded her of a station announcement. The second sounded like a school bell. She’d been a teacher for thirty-five years and rejected it immediately.
The third was a short piece of music. Lee waited while it played. Vera waited too.
“Does it stop?”
“After another verse.”
“My visitors won’t all be staying that long.”
They settled on two clear notes. Lee went outside and pressed the button. Vera stood in the kitchen and nodded. Then she went upstairs. Lee pressed it again. She heard it. She went into the garden, past the shed, and waved from behind the runner beans.
Lee pressed it a third time.
Vera gave him a thumbs-up.
As he packed his tools, her neighbor Beth arrived. She pressed the new button. Vera, still in the garden, called that she was coming. Beth waited, looking pleased. She had often stood on the step wondering whether to knock.
“This is much better,” Beth said.
Vera agreed. They had tea while Lee wrote the invoice. Then Vera’s brother arrived and pressed the button. Vera sighed.
Lee looked up. “Too loud?”
“No. That’s my brother.”
“How can you tell?”
“He always rings twice, then opens the letterbox and says my name into it.”
From the hall came a second chime, followed by “Vera?”
Her brother entered carrying a bag. He wanted to borrow her hedge trimmer. Vera reminded him that he’d borrowed it last month. He said that was why he wanted the charger. She fetched the charger. He stayed for tea.
Her brother tried the new bell from the doorstep before leaving. Then he came back for the charger he’d left on the table.
“Very good range,” he said. “I could hear that clearly from the gate.”
“Yes,” Vera said.
“And you can hear it behind the shed?”
“Yes.”
“Marvelous. You won’t have any excuse not to answer.”
Vera looked at Lee with sudden interest.
Lee stood with his tool case, wondering whether the job was finished. Vera asked if they could test the other sounds once more.
“You didn’t like them,” he said.
“I’ve had an idea.”
She wanted different visitors to produce different chimes. Lee explained that there was one button, so everybody would get the same sound.
“Could I have two buttons?”
“Yes, but they’d need labels, or nobody would know which one to press.”
Vera considered that. One for friends and one for family would look unfriendly. One for deliveries and one for callers would only encourage delivery drivers to use both. Her brother suggested a doorbell with a camera.
“Then you can see who’s outside.”
“People can already see me through the front window.”
“Pull the curtain.”
Beth looked down into her tea. Lee looked toward the garden. Vera looked at her brother, who had helped himself to a second biscuit.
At last she handed Lee the invoice.
“The bell is perfect,” she said. “There’s just one more thing.”
He took out his pen. “What would you like me to do?”
“Fit it at my brother’s house.”
Her brother looked surprised. “Why?”
“So when I want my tools back,” Vera said, “you can hear me from mine.”