Wrong number

It's an awfully warm night tonight. That was the second wash in two hours and I'm still not cooled. Believe me, all I wanted to do was just stand under the shower and give in to the feeling of chilled water washing over me. But then I thought about the poor children in Africa, who did not have any food or water. "And here you are.Wasting precious water 'chilling' in your shower when those poor deprived children don't even have water to drink"

How me saving water on this side of the planet would help them in that part of the world, did not make any sense to me, but it seemed like the right thing to do. The whole Gandhi and the "be the change you want to see in the world" thing floated in and out of my guilty pleasured consciousness and I soon walked out of the shower.

It being the tropics, you'd assume the days to be hot but the nights to be cool. Tonight clearly doesn't fit that agenda. Rather quiet too. Too quiet, if you ask me. I can't even hear the wind rustling the leaves outside. Which could also explain why the inside of the house is so warm. No wind, Stupid Heat. Enough to fry a blooming egg. I pictured a miniature me inside my head, cooking an egg on a frying pan. I half chuckled, half groaned at that mental picture.

Today was one of those days. I couldn't find my darn phone to randomly poke at. And I think the stupid fan was making the heat worse. I heard some science-y dude say that ceiling fans only increase heat. Apparently the air that is near the ground gets heated and rises. (This would ideally allow cool air to rush in and fill that gap) But what does the ceiling fan do? It pushes that warm batch of air right back at you. The result is that a ceiling fan is utterly pointless.


The heat is making my verbal diarrhea act up again. My brain just refuses to stop talking. There's no one at home also, to complain alongside me. That'd have made this pesky situation much easier to handle. Mom would have made some nice cool fruit juice, and dad would let me use his A/C office room. But then, both of them have gone out. They said they'd be back soon, though. I don't mind... I know I know... I've seen all the movies about spooky houses and so on. There's no one at home and things go bump in the night because someone's dead grandma is toppling things in the attic or something. *shrug* That's Hollywood. This is real life.

I lie in my bed listening to the steady 'tik-tok' of the clock. The house is so quiet; it's actually kind of irritating. I usually like the stillness and peace that the absence of sound brings about. But, urgh! The stupid heat! It's driving me nuts! I heaved a sigh and switch on the radio so that at least the sound of people talking will make this eerie quietness go away.


I grope around to find my phone. URGH! I groan outloud again and head over to the house phone downstairs. It could be in the TV room, or the bathroom, or even in my bedroom. I gotta call it, and then rush back upstairs to listen to the ringing tone to locate it. 'Oh well, at least something to do,' I muse during my descent downstairs.

I dialed my phone and let it ring. Just as I was about to keep it down on the stand to rush upstairs, the 'beep beep' noise at the other end stops. Yikes. Did I accidently dial a wrong number? Poor chap on the other end. Must have woken up for this. I didn't even speak to say "Sorry, wrong number" but hung up the phone and dialed again. This time I held the phone to my ear, a while longer and again, just as I was about to keep it, again someone picks it up. Feeling a little silly this time because I again, dialed a wrong number.


"Hello, I'm really sorry, but this is a wrong number," I say apologetically to the mouth piece.

Silence. "Hello?" Probably the person at the other end is sleep-answering. Just as I was about to keep the receiver, I heard a slow rasping grunt at the other end. Followed by heavy breathing.

"Hello? I'm really sorry for calling this late. I accidently dialed this number" And I quickly kept the phone.
I checked the caller ID and read the number out loud. Wait a minute. That is my number. See. 077- 47240. My blood froze. But then, who answered the phone?

Originally published on Ceylon Today Guys and Girls on June 1st