Prank Calls

The other day as I entered Marty’s room, he had the room phone in his hand and was dialing. He saw me, hung up, and stood up to greet me. Who was he calling? Me. Now, it didn’t occur to me until later to wonder just what the next step would have been had I not walked in the door. What kind of phone conversations does someone with his jaw wired shut have?

Does it really matter? Maybe he’s not calling to say something. Maybe he’s calling to hear something—me talking. And that didn’t seem so odd at all. In fact, it was cute. So that night I told him that if he wanted to call me, he could anytime. And the next night I wrote down my work and home numbers just in case. Today while I was at work, my phone rang. Caller ID said it was the hospital. I answered. Didn’t hear anything on the line and hung up (figuring it was somehow the voicemail that I had just hung up with). A minute later, the phone rang again. Again, the hospital.

Hello?

(breathing noises)

Marty, is that you?

(more breathing noises)

I love you.

(three distinct breathing noises)

And so it continued for a minute or so with me mostly just rambling until he hung up and the line was dead.

He called again in the afternoon. I got a little smarter and suggested that 2 taps or whatevers meant yes, 1 meant no, and of course, we knew what 3 meant. Again I was rambling on for awhile when there were three long and loud sounds from the pushing of phone buttons, as if to say, “Hey, why are you ignoring me? I have something important to say!” He’d been giving three taps, but I just wasn’t paying attention.

Note to self: Conversations still go two ways—even when you’re on the phone with someone who can’t talk, you still need to listen!