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Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology Lockdown’s Over the Down in the Dirt May-August 2021 issues collection book		get the 420 page May-August 2021 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

The Page

Jim Woessner

    “Mr. Smith, Mr. John Smith.”
    John looked up from his New York Times and smiled. How often had he heard his name being paged only to learn that it wasn’t meant for him? There are too many “John Smiths” in the world, he thought. He had decided long ago not to fall for it repeatedly, so he returned to reading his beloved Times.
    A few minutes later, the announcement repeated, “Mr. Smith, Mr. John Smith.”
    Again John looked around the vast room where several hundred men were waiting. He recalled a dinner party once where a mathematician told him that the odds of there being more than one John Smith, John Smythe, or some variation in a group of twenty men was slightly more than fifty percent. He calculated that there were perhaps fifteen John Smiths in the room, so once again he ignored the page.
    Over the next several hours “John Smith” was paged numerous times, but each time he assured himself that they weren’t calling for him. Finally, he finished his newspaper, put it on the chair, and left the building resolved to return the next day. Perhaps then he would be called and could finish his business.

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