Fright Night

Scared...that was me most of last night. It all started around 11pm when Kurt had settled in to bed. I swore I heard two men talking in our house. I sat up with a start which roused Kurt a little and asked him if he heard anything, but he said he didn't. So I figured it was a radio or TV somewhere and fell asleep.


1:45am. I awoke to two men conversing. This time it went on for a long time. I woke Kurt and, although he seemed to be half asleep, asked if he heard it. After taking about 3 minutes to get out of bed, he headed out of our room....of course the voices were gone by that time. I heard him get a drink, go the bathroom and soon he was back in bed. I asked him what it was, he murmured some unintelligible phrase. I asked he if checked the radio...no. Did he check anything? No. Very grumpily, I climbed out of bed to figure things out, knowing I wasn't going to get any sleep until I found some answers to the mystery.

I looked around in the kitchen and unplugged the radio. Then I noticed the answering machine was blinking. When did someone call? I hadn't heard a phone ring. I hit play..making sure it was loud enough to maybe wake Kurt. First there were a lot of weird, techno sounds. My mind raced as I tried to figure what to make out of it all. Was the radio frequency picking up on some electric current flowing from the answering machine which picked up conversations from somewhere outside our house? Was this that horror show where you get a weird call and then you mysteriously die? Was someone hired to hurt our family and only through divine intervention their conversation was miraculously recorded on our answering machine? Eventually the very long recorded information turned to male voices talking, athough very difficult to understand. I definitely heard the word Lott a couple of times though. Now I was beside myself.


It was then I realized the phone beside my bed was in another room which must be why I didn't hear the phone ring...although I usually do anyway. I got the phone and put it next to my bed...within easy reach. Through the sounds of Kurt snoring, I played one insane possibility after another in my mind. For sure, I would not be sleeping until I figured it out.


3:00 a.m. I'm still awake and the phone rings. I answer it and hear the strange sounds again. I wake Kurt up and make him take the phone. He repeatedly says, "hello" in to the phone, but no one says anything to him...just to another invisible person. He hands the phone to me and the caller hangs up. Finally, inspiration strikes and I dial star 69. I wrote down the number and then called it. A man picked up the phone. I meanly state that he has called our house 3 times and ask him what is going on. He explains, in an apologetic voice, that he has a touch phone and, while in his pocket, it has randomly dialed us. Really?? That sounds fishy. I hang up still wondering if this person has something dire in mind for our family.


The alarm rang way too early and I was exhausted, but I went to school...thinking about what had happened. After school, I played the tape for Hunter & Ryan. Then I double dog dared Hunter to call the number & ask who the person is. Low and behold, it's a guy from Hunter's work. AHHHHH!!!!! At least the mystery is solved....or is it? How come I heard the voices twice before I actually picked up the call the third time and there was only ONE message on my machine? I leave that for you to explain.


ps. I taught a unit on The Mysteries of Harris Burdick last November and entered my students in a national contest. One of my students took 3rd place out of thousands of entries!!!