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How to Rise Up When the World Brings Us Low

Storytime· Thoughts

11 Apr

If I don’t recognize the number on the screen when my cell phone rings, I don’t answer. (Of course, I may not answer even if I do recognize it because I’m an introvert, and answering the phone is just awful sometimes. But that is beside the point.) Several weeks ago, though, an unknown number appeared three times in a row. I thought if I didn’t answer, the person might keep calling, so I picked up the phone.

“Hello?” I said.

“Gail?” said a woman’s voice.

“No, you have the wrong number.”

“Well,” she fired back, “I don’t think I do. Is this [here she read my phone number to me]?”

“Yes, it is. But I am not Gail.”

“Hmm. Well, I’ll just call back when she’s probably in. Thank you!”

Baffled, I stared at my phone after the woman hung up. My husband had received a call like this—when the person on the other end didn’t believe they called the wrong number—but I never had. It was odd.

The next day, another unknown number from the same area code popped up. Sighing, I readied myself to be not Gail once more.

“Hello?”

“Gail?” a man said.

Read the rest on The Glorious Table!

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