Perhaps you recall my mentioning Ed Lee a few times over the years.

Most recently was about three months ago when I related a phone conversation about a fellow who lived on his floor who had been arrested. 

You may recall that Ed is 93 and of Chinese extraction.

Anyway, he’s been having a problem with his iPhone and I haven’t been able to solve it over the phone. For some reason he doesn’t want to call Apple. Well, he claims that he doesn’t understand them when they speak technical talk, but I think that’s an excuse. The Apple reps are usually very good at telephone support.

Ed lives on the other side of town. Well, the other side of Center City, so I’ve been waiting for milder weather to walk over there.

But a few weeks ago it suddenly occurred to me what his problem might be. In fact, what his iPhone problem had to be. And if I was correct, we might be able to solve it in a phone conversation. So I called him.

But he was too busy to talk. He was mired in some tax problem with the city and it was a mess, he said. Could he call me back.

Well, he called me back. Sometime after midnight. When I was sound asleep and my iPhone was set to Do Not Disturb.

I called him the next day and his phone immediately went to voicemail.

I didn’t bother leaving a message, figuring I’d keep calling back until I reached him. I didn’t really want to play telephone tag with him if he was gonna call me back at midnight.

So I’ve been periodically calling him since then, and every time I do, his phone immediately goes to voicemail.

As if the phone is turned off.

So I finally sent him an email.

Which he didn’t answer.

I called him again on Sunday afternoon and this time I got the message that I couldn’t leave a message because his voicemail has not been set up.

The sinking feeling that has been growing in the pit of my stomach sank a bit deeper.

There’s no one else I can call, as all of our mutual friends have either died or are otherwise out of contact.

I know he has relatives, but I don’t have their contact information.

I could call the lobby of his building, but assuming that they would tell me anything, I’m pretty sure I know what they’d say.

My world has gotten a little bit smaller once again.