The Wrong Number

I went to call my Aunt the other night and simply picked up the phone after dinner, sitting outside finishing a beer, and dialed her phone number, all the while thinking something was wrong. I have been calling my Aunt at her house for 40 years or so, and more often in later years, and I know her number like I know the back of my hand and yet, something seemed wrong.

When the phone was answered I knew it was a wrong number but I asked for my Aunt and was told it was wrong. I recognised a Baltimore accent so I knew I had the right area code but the number, although very familiar, was wrong.

I thought very hard and came up with the right number. I wanted to call 410-555-0364 (the 555 is a Hollywood gimmick as there are no 555 area codes and they always use it in movies) but instead I called 410-555-1792. (To be clear on the concept, I can’t use the number here because people may start calling my Aunt or this other wrong number.)

After my conversation with my Aunt I called my first wife to see if she remembered the number. It was familiar to her but she couldn’t come up with the original owners of that phone number either. She thought it could even have been our number because neither of us could remember it but we knew it.

My son was called but was not home. My daughter in law, a psychologist, said that I may have had a cognitive disturbance of some kind, a sort of brain fart. As I spoke with her my brain cleared and I knew what I had done. I told her not to give my son the message as I had just solved the puzzle. This was the home phone number of some old friends, both deceased for some time, but who I used to call often when we lived in Baltimore and once a year usually on Christmas Eve after we had moved. I called every Christmas eve no matter where I was for probably 17 years. I guess I just remembered the number too well.