It was last Wednesday night, and I was sitting in my room watching television when the phone rang.
“Hello?” I said.
A girl’s voice came over the line. “Can I speak to Ben, please?”
I live by myself, and my name definitely is not Ben. It was probably a wrong number and I was bored.
I replied, “I’m sorry, he’s not in right now. Can I take a message?”
“Do you know what time he’ll be back?” she responded.
“I think he said he’d be home around 10:00.”
Silence on the other end… a confused silence.
“Is this Steve?”
My name isn’t Steve, either. This was definitely a wrong number.
So I replied, “Yes, it is. Do you want to leave a message for Ben?”
“Well… he said he would be home tonight and asked me to call him,” she said in a slightly irritated voice.
I replied, “Well, he went out with Karen about an hour ago, and said that he would be back at 10:00.”
A shocked voice now: “Who’s Karen?!”
“The girl he went out with.”
“I know that! I mean… who is she?”
“I don’t know her last name. Look, do you want me to leave a message for Ben?”
“Yes… please do. Tell him to call me when he gets home.”
She was sounding pretty irate at this point, and I could hear her temper flaring. “I sure will. Is this Jennifer?”
She exploded, “Who’s Jennifer?”
Apparently she wasn’t.
“Well… he’s going out with Jennifer at 10:00. I thought you were her. Sorry… it was an honest mistake.”
“Ben’s the one that’s made the mistake! Tell him that Alice called him and the she’s very upset and that I would like him to call me as soon as he gets home.”
I smiled and said, “Okay, I will… but Becky isn’t going to like this…”
Click