The Phone Rang

Flash Fiction

The Phone Rang

The phone rang.

Jane rushed into the room after the third ring, reaching for the receiver.”

“Don’t answer that.”

Jane froze mid reach, looking toward the voice, there stood Lindie.

“What?” Jane said, “Why not?”

“I know who it is.”

“How could you know? We never use this phone.”

“I gave the number to somebody.”

“What? You know that’s Gramma’s phone! Why did you give somebody her number?”

“It was a guy who insisted on getting my number so he could call me. I didn’t want him to call me, but I also didn’t want to be rude about it. It just seemed easier to give him a wrong number. I figured when Gramma answered he’d think he wrote it down wrong.”

“So why are you standing there looking at the phone ringing?”

“I’m thinking of answering it…”

“It’s Gramma’s phone!”

“I know… if I answer it, I’ll have to tell him it’s not my phone and why I gave him the wrong number… now I’ve changed my mind… but he might be upset that I gave him a wrong number…

“Might? I would go with ‘will’… Let me do it!”

“You, why?”

“I know how to fix this!” Jane picked up the phone.

“Hello?” she said in a weird, high-pitched voice. “Who is this?”

After a moment, apparently the other person talking, she added still in the weird voice, “Oh goodness! You have the wrong number! People always phone me when they get the wrong number, it’s a very popular wrong number!! Go find the right number! Bye bye!” and she hung up.

“You’re a genius! Thank you!”

“It will be interesting to see how this plays out…” Jane said smiling.

It was. Two years later Jane was the maid of honor at Lindie and Andrew’s wedding.