Ghost Call

[archerships]

I was at the Laundromat last Tuesday. It was around 11:00 p.m. I had just finished washing some clothes for the Hurrydate the following day.

My cell phone rang. It was my Dad.

Normally, this wouldn't be strange, except that my parents were on a two week long road trip to see my sister Rachel and her husband Ted in Phoenix, then to see my sister Heather and her husband Jay in Fort Collins, then back to Idaho.

Moreover, they're almost always in bed by 11:00 p.m.

[Me, surprised] Hi Dad, what's up?

[Dad, relieved] Hi Son, are you all right?

"Yeah...why do you ask? What are you doing up so late?"

"Well, your sister Jen called. She said that she got a call from you, but that there was no answer. All she could hear for several minutes was a vigorous rustling sound. Then at the end, she thought she hear someone whisper, '...help me...' She freaked out. She thought you were getting killed. So she called me to check up on you."

"Well, I had my cell phone in pocket. I tried to call Jen earlier, and her number was still in memory. I probably accidentally pressed the dial button when I was getting my keys out of my pocket. The rustling sound she heard was my phone getting jostled in my pocket as I was moving clothes around."

"Yeah, that's probably it."

"I have a question though--why didn't she call me directly?"

"She didn't want to hear you getting killed."

Comments

[zapevaj.livejournal.com]

Wow, that last line is pretty frightening, despite being totally benign. It just -sounds- scary.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it does sound scary. Though at the time, I burst out laughing when I heard it.

[starkyld.livejournal.com]

i was visiting a friend in atlanta a while back and we'd gone out for a pleasant evening of drinks-and-such...once we were back in his apartment, he started to hear a voice coming from his jeans pocket. he took out his phone to find his very confused friend in new zealand on the other end of the line (who said he'd been on the phone for 5 or 10 minutes, listening to our conversation and thinking "that's damon!").

oh, i am such a fan of the lock feature on my phone...

[gonzolawyer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that last line is pretty fucked up.

Still, your sister made it infinitely harder upon herself by not calling you back. Whenever I'm confronted with a situation where what I fear is highly unlikely, I go straight at it to confirm that it's not real. This is the only way that you can go on with your day; otherwise, you sit there thinking about the worst thing that could happen all day. Your sister could have saved herself hours of grief by just calling you right back; and it would have been worth it considering how completely unlikely it was that you were being killed at that moment.

Hope everyone survived the experience without too many emotional scars...

[crasch.livejournal.com]

You're right that quick confrontation is generally the best response to most threats.

That said, I don't think she suffered much--she called my Dad immediately after it happened, so she only stewed for a few minutes. (I called her back immediately after my Dad called to reassure her.)

[perich.livejournal.com]

That is so amazingly amazing I think I'd like to steal it.

[jette.livejournal.com]

That story made me laugh out loud. But then again, I was an only child.