Love Life Word Work

I was riding down to the country with my friend Eric. We talked about all kinds of things. Did our work. Told each other all kinds of things. Learned things about each other’s lives. All in a day’s incidental conversation. But there comes a time when a friend has to tell a friend something he does not know, has resisted learning, will never know unless his friend comes right out and bluntly, flatly tells him, “This is the way it is. Period.”
You see I had been having a little trouble with my cell phone since the Tracfone company changed over to a different provider, even sent me a new little phone. It’s purrrrty. And it seemed like it was going to be just great. I spoke to a kind and polite gentleman in India. He got all the details and fixed it and I said, “God bless you.” as I signed off. He even gave me some extra minutes for the trouble. Hey, what more could you want?
And the phone worked great. The coverage was equal or better. Only thing was after a few days I heard from a friend, “I can’t reach you on your cell. It says no such number.” Then another friend said the same but, “I can only reach you if I hit the “call back” button in my missed calls list.
Hmmmm. So then I thought, this phone is just no good any more. I’ll use up my minutes calling out and then toss it when they are used up.
What a plan. My phone is funny, so I’ll toss it.
Then yesterday as we drove through the mighty Fairview, TN, as Eric checked his own phone, I had the bright idea to ask Eric to test my phone from his.
Here’s the number 631-****. He dialed it. It didn’t ring, plus he got the same old message – no such number. So I had the even brighter idea to call his phone from mine. (Notice: I was pulled over while doing all this.)
I dialed his and asked him what number was showing on his. “336-****” says Eric.
So I go, “see what I’m up against? It doesn’t show my right number on your display. Try pushing the call back button.”
He did and my phone rang. “Why does my phone ring for the wrong number?”
“Because,” says Eric humbly, pointing to the 336 # on his readout, “that’s your number.”
What a concept.
That’s your number.
I’ll make a note of it.