So, my phone rings...

[mapsedge]

My cellphone rings. There are only three people on the planet that ever call me on my cell during the workday, and I know all their numbers. This morning, I didn't recognize the number. I pick up.

"This is William."

"Oh." Pause. A woman's voice. "Not Charlie, I guess."

"Not today, no."

"Sorry. Wrong number."

"Right-o."

Click. Next time, things'll be a little different.

I pick up.

"0895, receiving encrypted. Go ahead on green."

"Oh." Pause. A woman's voice. "Not Charlie, I guess."

Pause. In a tight, tense voice: "Holy shit, somebody got through. MIKE! Take two men, lock the signal, go find her, take care of it!!!"

Click.

Soon. Yes, very soon.

Comments

[foolscap001.livejournal.com]

When I was about 14, long before the days of caller ID, I was at home alone, and the phone rang. It was some random wrong number. OK, fine. I started up the stairs to my room...

...and the [expletive] phone rang again! "By golly, I'll fix their wagon," I thought to myself as I stomped back to the phone, and pulled a sentence out of my memory of the Dutch by Radio series I'd recently listened to on Radio Nederland. I answered the phone.

"Met mevrouw van den Berg," I said. ("This is Mrs. van den Berg.") The caller mumbled something and hung up.

So much for that, I thought...until I found out later that it was a relative. Oops.

I've now lived for not quite twenty years with a phone number that is one digit off from that of an insurance agency, a doctor's office, and a pizza place. The only times it's been really frustrating is when the insurance agency sent out post cards to all their customers... with our phone number... and one afternoon long ago when an old woman wanted to know about her car that had been in a wreck, and no matter how many times I told her she had a wrong number still wanted to know about her car! I came within epsilon of telling her "I'm sorry, your car's a total loss, and you won't be getting any money from us," but resisted temptation, and I think I had to just hang up on her in the end.

[rowangolightly.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* Oops, indeed!

Well, all I can say is that you're a nicer person that I am!