Last Call

I once had an old cell phone left over. The battery had completely died, and finding one like it these days is so old-fashioned. They advised me to throw it away and not bother. But that's just my nature—I don't need it, but it's a shame to throw it away. Everyone in the house has modern cell phones, but our youngest will be starting school in the fall, so I decided to give it to him. I'll find somewhere to buy this battery. It's not like a kid is going to lug expensive phones to school, really!

Satisfied with these thoughts, I hid this "dinosaur" in the linen closet, on the top shelf, under the towels and pillowcases.

Time passed, and I completely forgot about this phone. And then my mother got sick. Those were some strange times; I still dread remembering it. Early in the morning, I had to take care of the animals, and at lunchtime, I had to run to the hospital to see her. In the evening, it was back to the cattle, the garden, dinner, and meeting the men home from work. I was exhausted to the point of heartache. I'd fall onto the bed and fall into such a deep sleep that I couldn't even remember my own dreams.

And then one night, we went to bed around eleven o'clock. My husband and I were lying there, chatting, discussing plans for the next day. I remember complaining to my husband about my mother—she wasn't getting any better, they'd be discharged soon, and yet she wasn't getting any better. We whispered some more, and then we started to fall asleep...

I don't know how much time passed, but everyone was fast asleep when suddenly the house rang. My husband and I jumped up and listened—it sounded like a cell phone, but we couldn't figure out whose. Our cell phones were silent. My sons came running from their room. The eldest only has a phone, but his is also silent, and he says the polyphony is ancient; new phones don't even ring like that anymore...

I walked weakly, panicked, to the closet and pulled our old phone out from under my underwear. It was still ringing faintly, and its display glowed a dim orange. As soon as I took it out, it went dark in my hands.

My family scratched their heads, trying to figure out how the phone could have rung if its battery had been dead for so long. I tried to calm the anxiety in my heart. I immediately felt there was a reason why—at night...

Everyone had gone back to bed, when my eldest sister called—our mother had died an hour ago, just when our switched-off phone started ringing...