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Write a story in the form of a landline phone conversation.

Posted in Dialogue on Jan 10, 2025

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✍️ 78 stories

Call Waiting

Submitted to Contest #285

“Good afternoon, you’ve reached the McDonough residence, Kaitlin speaking. How can I help you?” “Good afternoon, you’ve - wait - Katie?” “Anna, hang up the phone, please. I’ve got it. Who is it, please?” “Jeez, Katie. Is that always how you answer the phone?” “Every. Single. Time. It’s mortifying. My dad makes us do it. Anna, did you hang up? I can hear you breathing.” click “Be grateful you don’t have a twelve-year-old sister, Heather. Be grateful every day.” “Ha, ha. So - did they call?” “Not yet. I’ve been waiting all night.” “I tried you...

46 likes 25 comments 25
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The Call

Submitted to Contest #285

Scene: A rainy evening. Thunder rumbles in the distance as rain taps steadily against the window of a modest apartment. The dim lighting casts long, restless shadows across the room. The faint flicker of a nearby streetlamp seeps through the blinds, adding a melancholic glow to the space. A landline phone rings, sharp and intrusive, cutting through the ambient rain pattern. Sitting on her worn couch with a half-read book resting on her lap, Claire stiffens. She glances at the phone, her heart thumping at the unexpected sound as if it doesn't...

41 likes 50 comments 50
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Scratchy

Submitted to Contest #285

*mental health / self harm*Hold on, the line went a bit scratchy... Sandy? You're still there? Hi, Sandy, as I was saying, I think we have rats in the house, the night before last we were in bed and some God awful noise woke me up, and no, it wasn't Ian's snoring - you do grow accustomed to such things over fifty years of marriage, believe it or not - no, it was a scratching sound coming from the skirting behind the headboard, so I give Ian a good shove, no luck there, the man would've slept through Pompeii without so much as a twitch, ...

32 likes 4 comments 4
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MISSIONARY STYLE

Submitted to Contest #285

“Hello, this is Mary calling.”  “Hi Mary, what’s new? Hang up, and I’ll call you back.”  “Okay, Barnie, Thank you.” CLUNK RING RING RING LONGS RING RING RING RING SHORTS “Hi Barnie, thanks so much for calling me back.” “No problem. Is something wrong with someone?”  “It’s Nick. I received another letter, and he needs money.”  “Money for what this time?”  “He’s building a mini hospital he’s calling a dispensary.”  “What about the Jesuits? Can’t they help?”  “They helped him with the church, and I know you pa...

27 likes 27 comments 27
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Five against the wind

Submitted to Contest #285

Hello, copy desk? What’s your name, kid? --- Phillip, are you ready to take this down?Tuesday, January 30, 1940.Leeuwarden, Friesland, The Netherlands. 23:34.In the early hours, more than 3000 competitors and amateurs anxiously waited in the dark at the starting point of the Elfstedentocht (Eleven city tour). A 199 km skating race over frozen canals, rivers and lakes that connect eleven historical towns in Friesland, one of the two most northern provinces in The Netherlands.Yes, I’ll wait. --- Can I go on?Only when the Elfstedentocht Associa...

26 likes 16 comments 16
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The Y2K Scare

Submitted to Contest #285

[Frank’s living room, 11:45 PM, December 31, 1999] “Gary, pick up, you magnificent bastard!” The plastic receiver digs into my ear like a cheap headset at a telemarketing firm. My living room looks like a refugee camp designed by a doomsday prepper with a serious bean addiction. Towers of pork and beans wobble precariously, threatening to topple like a Jenga tower built by a toddler. D-cell batteries scatter across the coffee table like metallic confetti, and duct tape creeps up the walls like silver kudzu. The emergency radio I bought at Ra...

22 likes 10 comments 10
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The Kitchen Phone

Submitted to Contest #285

The wall phone in the kitchen rang. I lifted the receiver and heard crackling. At the same time, I looked out the window and noticed a phone company van outside my house. I also saw five men walking around the neighborhood wearing phone company vests. Then I saw cables lying on the sidewalk.I could barely make out a weak shaky voice saying, “I love you.” I whispered, “Dad?” I’m not sure why I whispered. I guess I was startled to hear his voice because he passed away three years ago. The phone crackled some more and suddenly went dead.I ran o...

15 likes 2 comments 2
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What Did You Say You Rented?

Submitted to Contest #285

"Good morning," my mother answered the phone. She always answered the phone with the appropriate greeting for the day. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. She answered every single phone call. My parents didn't have caller ID. They did have call waiting, but no caller ID. Sometimes my dad answered the call, too, on one of the extensions in the house, and his greetings usually sounded like, "Jello." Where my mother's greeting sounded like Glinda the Good Witch, my father's greeting sounded like a bridge troll. Every call involving a ...

15 likes 6 comments 6
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Recorded Telephone Call from May 14th, 2005

Submitted to Contest #285

Durham Regional Police Case File #45632Abduction/Disappearance of Mr. James LARSON and Mr. Austin PAUL The following is a transcript of landline call taking place at four twenty-six AM on May 14th, 2005, in Van Camp, Ontario. The content of this case file is for police viewing only. Unauthorized viewing of this file is prohibited under Section 342.1 and section 342.2 of the Criminal Code of Canada, and those found to be doing so will be prosecuted under the above stated laws. (Transcript Start)(Phone rings three times before Mr. Larson picks...

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Dial Tone Dirges

Submitted to Contest #285

[Tijuana, Mexico - Pay Phone outside Mercado El Popo, 1999] [Sound of coins clinking, dialing tones] "¿Aló? ¿Quién habla?" "Meire? Es Leah..." "¡Leah! ¡Dios mío! I can't believe it's you! We've been going crazy here! Your mother comes to my house every day asking if I've heard from you. Where are you? Are you okay?" "I... I made it to Tijuana. I'm at a pay phone near the market. The phone keeps eating my coins, so I don't have much time—" "You sound different. Your voice... you sound sick. Are you sick?" "I'm not sick, Meire. Just... ...

14 likes 8 comments 8
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THAT UNFORGETTABLE PHONE CALL

Submitted to Contest #285

The phone jangled, the insistent ring shattering the afternoon stillness. Agnes, her hands dusted with flour from baking a peach cobbler, sighed and crossed the kitchen to the wall-mounted receiver. "Hello?" "Agnes? It's Horace." A jolt, a flutter of her heart. Horace. It had been years. Years since he'd left for the city, years since she'd heard his voice, rough around the edges, tinged with a hint of the city's grit. "Horace. How… how are you?" Agnes's voice was cautious, guarded. The past lingered between them, unresolved. "Fine, Agnes. F...

13 likes 2 comments 2
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Public enema and other modern stuff of 1989

Submitted to Contest #285

”Any sausages left mum?” I swirl the stubby end of my last sausage in the cooling gravy, catching bits of mashed potato clinging to the edge of the plate. “All gone Mark, need to save some for your dad,” mum at the sink, tipping frying pan fat into an empty baked bean can.  “He’s on a late shift, will be home later.” She covers the sausages, mash, and gravy with an upside-down plate and sets it on the cooker, ready to warm over boiling water when Dad gets home.  I keep telling them to get a microwave, everyone else has one but mum ...

13 likes 6 comments 6
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Aphatetic

Submitted to Contest #285

“A box can’t fit inside a shoe.”“Daniel, sweetheart, it’s okay. You don’t have to make sense. The doctor said it’s part of the recovery.” “I buttered my cat and now I’m dressing my work table.”“Did he say anything yet?”“The water has hands. She’s very pretty. They’re holding hands for us at the dinner table.”“Really? How sweet! What did they look like?”“They were in the river, and then they looked up and ate the frame.”“How swell! And the dog, how’s the dog?”“I got a wound, it got wings and the wings have legs and arms and hair, and then I e...

13 likes 2 comments 2
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Help Desk

Submitted to Contest #285

“Thank you for calling Gateway technical support, this is Mike speaking. How can I help you today?”Mike adjusted his headset, already anticipating another Windows 2000 migration headache. The queue had been relentless since the Y2K dust settled. But the voice that came through was warm, slightly breathy, backed by the scratchy sounds of a Dean Martin song spinning on a vinyl record.“Oh, hello dear. I’m having trouble with my new Gateway computer. It just arrived today - what a lovely birthday surprise! When I saw those black and white spotte...

13 likes 6 comments 6
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Sanderson Residence

Submitted to Contest #285

ring-ring, ring-ring, ring-ringclick“Sanderson residence.”“Hi, Mrs. Sanderson. It’s Chuck. Can I speak to Roger?”“Hello, Charles. Not sure he’s here—roGER! CHARles! Oh, he is here. Hang on.”rustle, phh, phh, phh, clack “Got it, Mom. Hey, Chuck. What’s up?”“Jesus, Rog, I think your mom blew out my eardrum.”“Yeah, she does that. Mom, I said you can hang up now!”click, click“Crap. Did she hear me, Rog?”“Heh, heh, yeah, man. You’re off her Friday night meatloaf list now, dude.”“Thank god for that, heh, heh.”“Wish I could be. Anyway, what’s ...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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