The kid who ran away is answering every phone in the house

I'm walking through the old place and every room has a phone ringin' — the landline kind with the long spiral cord. The kid who ran off last spring is sitting cross-legged on the kitchen floor, lifting each receiver like it's nothing, saying 'hold please' in that flat voice he uses when he's decided something. Nobody's on the other end, but he keeps answering anyway, and I keep walking room to room, not asking why.