Text from Above

Linda Mom Cell is on &#@*chat

The first alert to my device had been several weeks prior in the early hours of the morning.

I don’t use that social media platform often at all. I guess I’m too old to be cool enough for it.

I ignored the alert as I do most of the ones I receive from that platform. Truth be told, I don’t receive many, and I’m ok with that.

Linda Mom Cell is on &#@*chat

The next time it popped up was in the middle of the day. I was at lunch enjoying a spicy chicken sandwich with surprisingly good panko crusted onion rings from a fast-food restaurant. Don’t give me any crap about how that food isn’t good for you. I know it isn’t. But you and I know that many things that aren’t “good” for you are often too tasty to resist. So there is that!

I ignored it again as I was busy relishing food that was bad for me.

Linda Mom Cell is on &#@*chat

The next time was a day or two later. I was in the bathroom doing some “business.” Hey! What do you call it?

Of course I ignored it again because I was busy at the time.

Now before you go judging me, and thinking I am some sort of jerk or anti-social type; you must know that Linda’s mom was my daughter’s grandmother. Now the lady has been my “Ex” mother-in-law for longer than she was my mother-in-law.

If I am too old to not be cool enough for that particular social media platform, then she was twenty-five years too “older” than I to be cool enough. Though if I’m being honest, I got along more with her for longer than I did with my daughter’s mother. After separating from her daughter, I can recall an occasion where she told me that maybe I hadn’t been a good husband, but that I always seemed to be a good father. We can’t all be good at everything I suppose.

Where was I? Oh yeah!

Linda Mom Cell is on &#@*chat

They had been popping up on my device more frequently. And I continued to ignore them because technology had not been her thing, so it was unlikely that she would have readily adopted that social media platform.

And oh yeah, Linda’s mom had been dead for close to three years.

Linda Mom Cell is on &#@*chat

Every day I was starting to get them. It was getting harder to swipe them away.

Now I had been employed in the cellular industry for close to two decades, so I know that when a number gets released or changed that it will go into electronic “holding” if you will, for a certain period of time. Then that number gets released so that some new person will get a number that maybe had belonged to someone for years and years.

It was interesting to me because I had her number saved as Linda Mom Cell, so that meant even though a new person had the number it would still show up for me as Linda Mom Cell.

Linda Mom Cell is on &#@*chat

It was late when that one came in. I was in bed and about to put out the lights. I knew that this person who was active on &#@*chat had gotten my ex mother-in-law’s number and wasn’t really trying to contact me. I was sleepy at the time and a thought popped into my noggin. What if that’s not what this was?

Linda Mom Cell is on &#@*chat

In the morning, not quite like clock-work, but almost. I thought it was a funny thing so this time I did not ignore it. I reached out on the app.

ME: funny story, my ex-mother-in-law had this number so when you are active it shows she is on &#@*chat

LINDA MOM CELL: even funnier story – it is me-

I had a chuckle at that and forgot about it for a while because I had a lot going on that morning.

It wasn’t till much later in the day that I really thought about the response I had received. It was not what I expected. Of course the person was messing with me.

These alerts are from memory. I don’t have them on my phone because it wasn’t till much later that I discovered you could save the messages. I thought they disappeared once you left the text thread, and that was that. To be completely honest, I didn’t so much “discover” this as I asked my young niece Savannah about that particular functionality. So I can’t show you any of these communications.

Linda Mom Cell is on &#@*chat

This time I responded pretty quickly.

ME: your response was funny, but I know it isn’t her. She wasn’t a bigg fan o technology, and there is the whole “dead” thing

LINDA MOM CELL: glad you liked it. Honestly jondr don’t know how to prove to you that – it is me-

Now this gave me pause. When I read that response I got one of those weird sinking feelings in the pit of my stomach. If you weren’t me, then there would not seem to be anything out of the ordinary in that short response. But I am me, so it was out of the ordinary. You see my name is John nothing unusual about that. Although it has served me well, my name is nothing unusual. My last name is not as common. It is two words, and the initials are D.R.

My ex mother-in-law used to combine my first name and my initials into a nickname of sorts. Depending on how she pronounced it, the nickname could be semi-endearing, or it could convey that I was being a dumb-ass.

ME: if you are her, why reach out to me and not 1 of ur kids?

LINDA MOM CELL: honestly… yours is the only number I remember. Probably because it has Dani’s birth year in it.

Not an unlikely as you might think. If you can accept that my ex mother-in-law was communicating with me :she must have a great data plan: then you can accept the comment about remembering my number. Any of you that are older like myself, may possibly remember your old home phone number. You might remember other numbers because you had to remember them back in the day. But if you ask a teenager to tell you their home phone number, they would likely look at you like you had a third eye in the middle of your forehead. “What’s a home phone number?” they might ask. There is a chance all they have ever known was a cell phone number as their “home phone.”

Even we old-timers have started to forget numbers because the cell phone has become so ubiquitous.

But I still had to wonder.

ME: then why reach out to me at all?

LINDA MOM CELL: I wanted you to set Mary straight.

Curiouser and curiouser. Linda’s mom had five daughters. When she passed, it turned out that the middle daughter was the executor of the will. That was somewhat of a surprise, you would have thought that the oldest would have been given that task/responsibility.

Sometimes a death will bring out the best in people/family. When my wife’s mother passed, it brought her and her sisters closer together. Of course sometimes the opposite will happen.

I got most of what went on second hand, from my daughter. Apparently this task/responsibility had turned Mary into a major C you Next Tuesday.

So I had to wonder.

ME: if I don’t believe you, then why would she?

LINDA MOM CELL: just tell her to remember the blue kitty, and do what’s right.

Weird inside joke no doubt. Be that as it may: I made sure I was able to make an appearance at one of their gatherings a few days later. During a lunch with my daughter I took one of her keys off it’s keyring. I think it was her mailbox key. I reached out to her and told her I had the key; she must have dropped it. I let her know I would drop it off at their gathering. It was a barbeque, and the brisket was top notch.

I won’t say I was disappointed, maybe surprised would be a better word, that I didn’t receive any alerts till after that gathering.

I had contrived to be in a room alone with Mary and told her, “I know it’s none of my business what’s going on.” She gave me such a look; and in an icy tone said, “damn right!”

I rolled my eyes quite loudly and said, “anyhow, your mother said to remember the blue kitty and do what’s right.”

You’ve heard that phrase, “white as a ghost.” I had heard it before, but I had never actually seen it happen.

After I made my pronouncement, Mary’s face became shockingly pale. She gasped loudly, I could see tears well in her eyes and she fled from the room like she was being chased.

I learned from my daughter after the fact that her aunt changed completely that day. Apparently she did do what’s “right.”

It was later, much later that night.

LINDA MOM CELL:I want to thank you jondr

I could imagine that last part coming across as semi-endearing.

ME: glad I could help. Is there anything else I can do?

LINDA MOM CELL: can’t think of anything pressing. Not much juice left on this and believe it or not, can’t find a charger

ME: you gotta be kiddin me :)

And that was that.

No more alerts from that number. Like I said before, I didn’t know you could save messages till after this unusual interaction.

Another point I didn’t mention before. Her little avatar at the end of each message looked as much like her as those things will sometimes do.

Did I say that the avatar had a neat little halo?