The Phone Call

THE PHONE CALL.

“Where is it?” Jane grumbled, as she rifled through her large, untidy handbag. She sat in the car using her left hand to try to find her mobile phone, which was madly ringing. All the time holding onto a popsicle she had bought a few moments before, which was now starting to look like Mount Vesuvius as it ran down her hand.

She realised she couldn’t save the popsicle and the phone had stopped ringing, so she opened the car door and dropped the melting mess into the gutter. “Damn!” she said. “I was so looking forward to that!” She used some baby-wipes to clean her sticky hands, and opened her bag again.

There it was, sitting right there in front of her. “Why the hell couldn’t I see you before?” she said.

She pulled the phone out and swiped it, then checked her phone calls. “You must be kidding me!” she said. “After all that, it’s just a nuisance call?” After deleting the number, she threw the phone back into her bag, in disgust.

Jane had been shopping in this 40 degree heat, and was looking forward to getting home for a nice cold drink, and sitting in front of her air-con.

She was so hot and uncomfortable, she pulled at the neck of her blouse as the perspiration ran down her neck. Even the air-con in the car was having trouble coping with this heat, and kept on cutting out.

Jane still had a couple of things to do, which she wasn’t looking forward to.

Her next stop was to have a blood sample taken. Her Dr. had asked her to get one done, because he thought she might be diabetic.

As she started the car she noticed a very small moving zig-zag in the corner of her eye. “Not now!” she cried. “Really?” “I’m going to get a migraine now?” “This can’t be happening!”But it was.

Jane stopped the car outside the Blood Collection Clinic, jumped out and headed inside, glad to find some coolness in the waiting room.

The tiny zig-zags were now right across her peripheral vision, making it hard to concentrate, but so far no migraine.

Jane sat down among the others queued up, and closed her eyes, hoping the zig-zags would go away.

Then suddenly she knew. It wasn’t a migraine, it was a 3pm sugar drop. Her stomach started to flutter and a sharp pain began to rise in her chest, her hands felt shaky and her face went bright red. The perspiration broke out on her forehead and she started to have a panic attack as well.

She rummaged through her bag looking for a lollipop, which she usually carried, just for this purpose, but they were all gone.

Jane felt so flustered, shaky, hot and upset, the tears began to run down her cheeks.

One of the ladies in the waiting room came over. “Are you okay?” she asked. “Is there anything I can do?” Between sobs, Jane managed to explain she was having a sugar-drop and needed some sort of lolly or biscuit, to help alleviate the pain and the shakes.

The woman opened her bag and took out some cough drops. “Would these help?” she asked. Jane nodded yes, and thankfully took a couple of the cough drops. After thanking the woman,

Jane closed her eyes and sucked the cough drops, knowing that the 20 or so people in the waiting room, were all staring at her.

She opened her eyes again as number 5 was called. She was number 19, so she had a long wait. Jane drifted off into a sound sleep, which usually happened after one of these sugar drops, as it sapped all her strength.

She almost fell off her chair, as her phone began to ring. She rummaged through her bag and this time managed to find her phone, before it stopped ringing.

Jane swiped the phone and answered. “Hello, Jane speaking?”

“Hello Mrs Jane.” A strange voice said. “Your computer is playing up and you need to give me your email, so we can fix it!”

Jane was so furious, she felt like throwing her phone at the wall.

“Get off my phone, you stupid man!” she yelled, then deleted the number again. She then realised where she was and that the room had become very quiet.

Jane looked up at all the questioning faces. “I am sorry about that, it was one of those dreadful nuisance calls.” She told her audience. “They have been driving me mad for days.” Then, everyone smiled at her. They all began talking at once, about how they too got those awful phone calls.

A large man in a suit, sitting quietly and smiling at the chatter, spoke to Jane. “I know how to stop them altogether, if you’d like me to?” “Oh yes please!” Jane said, and handed her phone over to the man. He did a few quick swipes and clicks then handed the phone back to Jane. “Done!” he said. “You shouldn’t get any more of those calls now.” “Thank you so much!” Jane said. “This heat is enough to drive me insane, without all those stupid phone calls.” Everyone agreed, then a few others got the man in the suit to fix their phones.

“Number 18 please!” the nurse called. “Goodness!” thought Jane. “I must have drifted off for quite some time.” A quarter of an hour later Jane opened the clinic door to find it was raining. She dashed to her car, started it up and headed to the Post Office, squishing through the rain on the road as the steam rose from the red-hot tarmac.

Jane pulled up to the Post Office, jumped out of her car and dashed through the large raindrops, and inside the building.

She could feel the drips running down her hair and realised she must look a fright, but she needed to get this done, there was no time to lose.

She gave a little shudder as the air-con in the Post Office started to cool her down. She opened her bag and took out the letter to her Father. It would be the last time he would hear from her, as he only had 3 weeks to live. He was living in Italy with her Step-Mum, and had been diagnosed with stage 4 bone cancer. She had spoken to him on the phone and on her computer, and now she had written him a letter, which her Step-Mum would read to him. She could express things so much better in a letter, but it was also so final.

Jane put a stamp on the letter and posted it, giving it a final quick kiss, before she dropped it in the mail box.

Jane dodged the raindrops as she slipped back into her car and headed home. “What a day!” she thought. She put her car into the garage then carried her shopping to the front door. Her partner opened the door, and took the bags from her.

“You look like you have been hit by a bus!” “Is everything okay?” Jane smiled at her partner. “I’m fine, I’ve just had a very busy day, the heat is unbearable and I got a bit wet getting to the car!” He didn’t need to know all the ins and out’s about that awful day, she thought. Now she was home she could settle down in front of the air-con, relax and put it all behind her.

Then her phone rang.

“Don’t worry love!” Her partner said. “I’ll get that, you just relax for a while.”