Pager Number 666: A Symbol of Guilt and Empathy in Tourist Season

Overview

In the story “Crash Course” from Enid Shomer’s collection Tourist Season, the pager number with the code 666 appears as a small, tangible token of a dangerous encounter. Abby Presner, a middle‑aged journalist visiting New York, gets into a minor car accident with a young drug dealer. After a tense but oddly intimate conversation, the young man writes down his pager number and assigns Abby the code 666—a playful but sinister joke referencing her as the “crazy brown lady from Florida.” Abby keeps this scrap of paper for months, tucking it into successive wallets. Over time, the demonic numbers shift from a memento of a strange night into a painful symbol of unresolved guilt, her misplaced empathy, and her helplessness in the face of another person’s uncertain fate.

The Pager Number as a Literal Object

The pager number is a scrap of brown paper bearing the young man’s contact information. He insists Abby use the code 666 when paging him, telling her it is “special” because of her Florida background. Abby immediately recognizes the number as ominous—“a bad number”—but accepts it.

The object recurs later in Abby’s life: she keeps the scrap in her wallet for a long period, transferring it from one wallet to the next. She even considers calling the young man, but never does, partly because she had lied about being a reporter. Eventually she throws the paper away, an act that leaves her feeling as if she has thrown away the young man himself. The physical scrap thus serves as a concrete link to a person she could not truly help, and its eventual disposal marks a form of reluctant closure.

The Shifting Meaning of 666

When the code is first assigned, it carries the young man’s joke: 666 represents the devil, but he uses it affectionately. Abby does not laugh; she gulps. In the moment, she is still in a state of heightened, almost dreamlike empathy, and the demonic reference barely registers as a threat.

Later that night, back at her friend Esther’s apartment, Abby’s fear erupts in retrospect. The 666 code becomes entangled with her delayed terror—the realization that the young man could have killed her. Over the following months, the number transforms again. It becomes a badge of her own naivety: she had treated the dealer with unfounded optimism, believing her empathy alone could change his life. The 666 now stands for her embarrassing lack of self‑preservation, as her friends and husband later point out.

Finally, when she disposes of the paper, the 666 becomes a symbol of failure. She admits she is helpless to alter his circumstances. The devilish code no longer represents a joke or a close call; it embodies the painful distance between her good intentions and the real world’s intractable dangers.

Character Connections

Abby Presner

Abby is the protagonist of “Crash Course.” Her behavior during the encounter baffles her: she is not afraid until afterward, and she later cannot explain why she acted so compassionately. Holding onto the pager number shows how deeply the incident affected her. She clings to the paper because it stands for a connection she could not sustain. Abby’s empathy, which she initially regarded as saintly, comes to feel like a weakness. The 666 code remains a silent witness to her internal conflict between wanting to rescue others and understanding her own limits.

The Young Man (the Drug Dealer)

The dealer remains unnamed, which underscores his symbolic role. By assigning Abby the code 666, he marks her as an outsider in his world. He is eager to share his stories, dreams of being written about, and admits he has never been to the beach or Puerto Rico. The pager number is his lifeline to a potential future—a book, a different life. When Abby fails to call, she effectively cuts that thread. The 666 thus points to two characters’ intersecting hopes: his desire for escape and her inability to fully act on her compassion.

Theme Connections

The pager number 666 draws together several themes in Tourist Season. Most directly, it belongs to the theme of secrets and guilt. Abby keeps the scrap hidden, not telling her husband or friends that she still has it. She feels guilty about lying to the young man and about discarding him, as it were, by throwing away the number. The devilish code amplifies her private shame.

The number also resonates with identity and transformation. The dealer assigns 666 to Abby partly because she is from Florida and he thinks of her as crazy. Yet among her own set, she is the responsible, sympathetic one. The code forces her to see herself through his eyes—an exotic, risky version of herself that she barely recognizes. Her subsequent transformation from fearless to frightened mirrors the shift from naïve empathy to seasoned caution.

Finally, the symbol touches on the motif of travel and tourism as metaphor—a recurring pattern in the collection. Abby is a visitor from Florida, an outsider in the drug‑infested New York streets. The pager number becomes a souvenir of an uncomfortable tourism: she visits a dangerous world, samples the thrill, and returns home with a relic that will not let her forget the trip.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Abby keep the pager number for so long, and what does her eventual disposal of it signify?
   Abby keeps it because it represents the connection she felt with a young man she wanted to help. She holds onto the possibility of calling him, which would mean acting on her empathy. Throwing it away signifies her acceptance that she cannot change his life and that her compassion has limits.

2. Why does the dealer choose 666 as Abby’s code, and how does Abby’s reaction to that number change over time?
   He picks 666 as a joke because she is from Florida and seems eccentric. At first Abby barely reacts, caught up in the tense mood. Later the number becomes a source of horror, reminding her of her naïve trust, and still later it becomes a burden of unresolved guilt.

3. How does the pager number connect to the theme of secrets and guilt in “Crash Course”?
   The number is a secret Abby keeps from her husband and even from her friend Esther. She feels guilty about lying to the dealer (claiming to be a reporter) and about eventually discarding the contact. The code 666, associated with evil, amplifies the shame of having concealed part of the truth.

4. In what way is the pager number a “souvenir” of a dangerous kind of tourism?
   Abby visits New York from Florida and stumbles into a criminal subculture. The pager number functions like a souvenir—a tangible reminder of an exotic, risky experience. Unlike a pleasant memento, it causes her to question her own behavior and leaves her with lingering fear and guilt.