The Kitchen Phone

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 outside and hailed a telephone worker who happened to be the supervisor. I asked, “What’s going on? My phone rang and when I picked it up it crackled. I could just barely hear talking on the other end.”

He said, “That’s not possible. The phone cables have been down for two hours. All the phones in this neighborhood will be out of service until tomorrow morning.” He looked concerned and said, “We sent out notices a week ago that we would be here today. Do you have an emergency?”

“No,” I said.

I went back into the house and looked at the phone. The receiver was hanging down the wall. I could hear faint cracking as I lifted it up. The same voice said, “It’s me. Stay inside. You’ll be okay.” Once again, the phone went dead.

The next morning phone service was restored at about eight in the morning. I put the receiver to my ear and heard a faint voice through the crackling say, “Look in the back yard.” Then the phone disconnected.

I walked to the rear of the house and looked through the sliding glass door that opened onto a small patio. I looked in the back yard and saw a coyote lying under a bush near my bedroom window. I stared at it from behind the sliding glass door for at least ten minutes and it didn’t move. It was dead.

I called animal control from my now working kitchen phone and when they came to pick it up, they told me it looked like a rabid animal and I was lucky I didn’t go into the back yard last night while it was alive.

After animal control left, I stood in my kitchen staring at the yellow phone on the wall and whispered, “Thanks, Dad. I love you, too.”

I called the phone company and requested to speak with the supervisor who had been in the neighborhood yesterday. I gave them his name and after about five minutes they told me that no one by that name worked for them. Also, the phone lines were not restored until an hour ago and I couldn’t have heard anything on the phone until just now. In fact, I was the first person to call them this morning.

I went back to the patio door and looked out. There was no sign that anything or anyone had been in the back yard. There were no boot prints or torn grass or anything. I thought it was odd but didn’t give it much consideration.

Then that night the kitchen phone rang and when I answered it I heard crackling. The same kind of crackling. “Okay, this is spooky and now I’m getting nervous,” I thought.

I called my friend Bobby who lived in the neighborhood and she said, “There weren’t any phone trucks here yesterday. You must have seen something else. Also, I don’t know of any neighbors who have had phone trouble lately.”

Now I was upset. I wandered around the house and eventually summoned the courage to go out into the back yard. My house is backed up to a hill and I’m sure I saw some animals darting up the road that utility vehicles used from time to time. From a distance the animals looked like coyotes.

I called Bobby again and told her about the phone calls and the phone company van and cables and that I had just seen coyotes running up the hill behind my house. She said, “You have quite an imagination. Not that you didn’t see coyotes on the hill but, honestly, there haven’t been any sightings here for a year or more.”

“Okay, then tell me this. Did anyone get a notice from the phone company that our cables would be repaired or replaced yesterday?”

“Nope.”

“And everyone you know of had phone service all day yesterday?”

“Yup.”

“Well, then I need help because I definitely had a coyote in my back yard.”

Bobby said, “Call animal control and find out if they actually came to your house. Not that I don’t believe you, but…”

I called and they had a record of coming to my house and picking up a coyote body. So I called my ex and asked him what I should do.

He said, “Now, Joan, you know this is one of the things we talked about before we split. You were always getting phone calls from someone who had passed. I couldn’t keep up with your stories and, for my own peace of mind, I had to leave. I love you but enough is enough. Maybe now you will see a counselor and get some real help.”

I hung up and the phone rang again, “He’s wrong. You don’t need help. He does.” The voice behind the crackling seemed firm so I decided not to worry about any of it for now. Getting my new life together was difficult enough without worrying about my fantasies.

The next day there was a knock on the door and there stood the phone company supervisor. He said, “You called the company yesterday and they told you I don’t work for them. I got the message from a friend who works there and, yes, it is true that I don’t work for them. I am an independent contractor and just wanted to let you know that what you experienced happened. We were here and did fix the cabling.”

“Okay, but what about the phone crackling and voices on the other end?”

He said, “I don’t know why you heard something on the phone. But if you say you did, I believe you. I have had similar experiences myself.”

I invited Mark in for coffee and as he got up to leave the phone rang again. I lifted the receiver and heard the familiar crackling, and the same weak shaky voice said, “Told you.”