The Number You Have Dialed HAS A LIFE

Predator Press

[LOBO]

Teenagers spend a lot of time on the phone.

They are very busy and important people.

Busy, busy, busy.

Important, important, important.

And I'm okay with that.

Seriously.

But they call a lot.

Look. Nobody has called me circa 1996, and I kinda like it that way.

-Now the same person will call five times in a row. And not just leave a message and move on, but just call and call and call.

And call.

First Call: If you call once and choose not to leave a message, I get that. You wanted to talk to the person live. Nothing particularly important.

Second Call: The second call presupposes something like a) you changed your mind about leaving the afore mentioned message, or b) I was in the shower: while toweling suds out of my eyes, perhaps I made a heroic effort for the phone -but the instant I got there the call switched to voicemail. I haven't called back because the dripping water probably shorted out both the voicemail and the Caller ID.

Third Call: The third call always makes me wonder what exactly our teenagers are telling people about the size of our place: Okay. Maybe I'm in the pool. While drying off the phone starts ringing again and -gasping- I realize I've locked myself out of the house and the the phone, half-forgotten, lies on the kitchen table. As a bonus, Freddy Krueger audibly starts to churn through the outer perimeters of my hedge maze.

I don't know about you, but the third unanswered call suggests to me that this isn't the best time.

Fourth Call: A fourth call leaves me totally bewildered.

Okay this scenario suggests that I'm maybe at 7-11. And as I pour my Slurpee, a crashing meteor wipes out all mankind and accidentally creates flesh eating zombies: it's only then I realize I've locked myself out of the church, and off in the distance I can hear Freddy Krueger in my hedgemaze with a pack of cheetahs -directly in the path of my house where the phone lie half-forgotten on the kitchen table. All civilization as we know it has come to an abrupt and bitter end, and one lone human being -one with me on speedial- is crying out for help as the frail atmosphere is being sucked violently from Earth by a black hole.

Frankly, I still wouldn't answer: I would obviously have my own problems to deal with.

And Humanity's last Slurpee.


Comments

A giant 80oz Slurpee sound damn good!

My phone is always in my pants anyway ;-)
Alex L said…
I'm back to sending telegrams... stop, sorry bad habit.
Shawn said…
Slurpee always takes precedence over answering the phone. Even on the 4th call. Even on the 8th.
WorldOfIllusion said…
That would be a very valuable resource, you might even be able to barter it for safe passage to another dimension with some alien super race.
That sure would be something to brag about in the parallel dimension where earth wasn't post-apocalypse.

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