wrong number



I've had the same cell phone number for over eight years, ever since we moved to Taos, and even though we aren't there right now, I keep the number because, well, it's mine. I don't generally get a lot of calls on it. Usually just Lauren and Rick, and now that we're away from a house and a landline, the occasional call from my dad and sisters. That's OK with me. I really don't like to talk on the phone much, and I guard my number like I'm some kind of celebrity or something. If I give it to you, you better not to share it. It's private. It's mine. It's only for people I really like. At least it was until recently.

For several weeks now I've been getting an unusual surge of wrong-number calls. I can't figure it out. Most are from New Mexico, probably Taos, and a few are from Colorado, probably Denver. They're not from the same callers over and over again either. At first I thought maybe some joker had written my number on the bathroom wall at the Alley Cantina - "for a good time, call..." - because a lot of the calls come in around two in the morning, when bars are closing and the night air is cold in the high desert. I turn my ringer off at night now, and am often amused to find two or three missed calls in the morning. There are lots of lonely guys in Taos.

But the bathroom wall theory doesn't hold up well because sometimes I'll get a call in the early morning, and some woman will leave a message asking if whoever she thinks she's calling can give her a ride to work that day. You'd think when they get my voicemail greeting, saying, "Hi, this is Kim", they'd figure it out, but no... it takes two or three times for them to give up and stop calling me. There's no taxi service in Taos, and it's hard to find a reliable ride.

Just this morning, my phone rang around nine o'clock, a Denver number, and I answered it. The woman on the other end asked for Amy, and then repeated my number to me. She got what she had dialed, but there's sure no one named Amy here. She sounded puzzled too, and I found myself apologizing for not being Amy.

I cannot figure any of this this out, but now, rather than being annoyed, I'm intrigued. Maybe there's a reason for all these strangers to be calling me. Maybe they need me. Maybe I'm supposed to talk to them... I think I'll change my voicemail greeting to say something like, "Hi, this is Kim, and although I might not be the person you meant to call, maybe, on some cosmic level, you were meant to call me. Please leave a message, and I'll call you back if it seems important." Something like that. Whatever I do, I don't want to change my phone number. This is just starting to get interesting.

Comments

  1. We get calls like that on our home phone for the past four years for a family with the last name of Columbo. I can't tell you how many times we have gotten calls from oxygen companies and the hospital looking for Helen Columbo. One can only assume the poor thing died from a disease or lack of oxygen. One woman called one day asking for Columbo, again, and I told them we didn't know them, again. She then proceeded to tell me that Mr. Columbo kidnapped her daughter and she was searching for him. I hope to heaven that that isn't true.

    Hope you get to the bottom of your popular number Kim...or Amy...or whomever you will be tonight ;).

    \IiiI

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  2. My phone number used to belong to someone named LaVonda. She obviously owes someone a LOT of money. I get calls from collection agencies looking for her all the time. At first I was annoyed and short with the callers, then started being nice and asking how much money she owed and if they ever thought they'd find her. I've had some nice conversations with frustrated agents!

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  3. We get calls like that on our landline Kim, asking for a taxi, because it's an easy number to remember ! Maybe Diosa (above) is looking for a Detective !! Columbo ha ha !! Maybe he could suss it out for you all !!! ~ especially as it seems for her somehas been kidnapped. Just one more thing....

    ReplyDelete
  4. I keep my phone off unless I am using it and I don't have voice mail any longer, got tired of all the wrong numbers, especially since my phone is pay as you go and I have to pay for all those calls. Wonder what we'd do now without phones, cell phones, god forbid without computers, guess we'd have to ask our neighbor, use carrier pigeons and typewriters or letters.

    ReplyDelete

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