The Caller-A Short Story

THE CALLER

That was the day when I got the call. Such a pleasing voice, originally pleading and the idea was to dominate. The female voice from the other end stated that there is an offer from so called M club and has got so many benefits etc. etc. In response to that call, I politely replied that I am busy at the moment and I may talk to the concern person later. I really was busy and I only told the truth. Life has so many offers and often there may be few or only one choice at the end, I thought.

The next day I got the same call, the voice showed some sort of intimacy as if she is very close to me as well as very near to me. There is a point beyond which one cannot move, I remembered the dialogue from a famous movie. The main point is again about the club membership, but our conversation through her talk indicated some thing personal and it revealed that she didn’t talk to be like a prospect. She wanted to know my name and I said half of my name. When I asked about her name, she said a name which I really thought it may not be true. This way our game continued. She asked me what you ate and I said something. As a formality, I reciprocated the same for which she said something. Life has so many games but the perfect game is not about winning or losing. Its all about playing the game by all the rules for the same. In other words it is about playing the game perfectly.

That was a Saturday afternoon. The quality of the Saturday is to get the full day work done in half a day. This time Merlin, the tele caller didn’t speak about business. She was so enthusiastic and her voice was so jubilant. She spoke to me in such a way as if she knew me for ten years. How it could ever occur in any one’s mind, I thought. It was so funny, though I appreciated the same at the moment. In the mid our conversation she appealed for my friendship and insisted me to help her by getting her some leads. As I was not personally convinced about the concept, I never was willing to give her my leads as a matter of fact. Next time when she spoke to me, she was so personal and telling me how reluctant she was to do the telemarketing job. She also told me that she is in her early twenty’s and wish to settle down with a stable job soon. In spite of the fact that we both never met each other in person and our acquaintance is only over

Telephone,  she posed me the question whether she could come to my house etc, etc. It really sounded me the funniest of all and I didn’t reply for the same. It is highly dramatic and life is full of such dramas because no one ever knows when it will end.

Now the call started coming frequently, as frequent as three or four times in a day. Though there is no subject to talk, there was some talk no matter it is important or not.

When we like someone, we talk, that’s all. Now I started expecting her calls, the way we feel hungry periodically, until we get fed. The disease needs no reason; disease needs to be arrested at once. Medicine cause bitterness, yet we swallow to eradicate the disease or stay healthy, whatever the case it may be.

I am terribly busy by profession having no time or need for romance is in my late 40’s. Perhaps the caller must have mistaken me as youth through my voice. I seldom believe the words true love or true friendship especially with opposite sex. It is not that I am trying to be practical, just am being normal.   

It was 7 pm in the late evening and I was on my way home and amidst heavy traffic. I got the call from her. She was casual in her talk and talked as if I am very close to her. The fun was both of us never proposed to meet each other. Though I never took it so serious, I really wanted to avoid future complications that may pop out of this. After all we are strangers isn’t.  I just want to end the game.

‘I want to tell the truth.’ What truth? She asked, It is about my age, I replied. You must be twenty eight or thirty two, she giggled. Now I understood why she spoke to me. ‘Will you continue to be my friend if there is much age difference’, I asked. She didn’t conform; she must have got confused I thought. Often when confusion and confrontation occupies the position, life becomes dormant and ineffective. She never was annoyed but some sort of fear must have encircled her.

I am in my late 40’s, I confessed. She must have been astonished. ‘Are you married‘, she asked. ‘Yes, and I have two kids’, I replied. She was quiet for sometime. I could hear over phone she was yelling at someone near to her. Hiding her disappointment she told me that someone near shouting and that makes the conversation inaudible.

The next day I expected her call as usual but she didn’t. This is a very recent habit or practice that urged me wanting to speak to her. She only called first, and if the so called friendship prevails, she may call, I thought.

Now the confusion is over. Mind is as clear as rain water. There is a price for every thing, true friendship has no expectation. One cannot get windfall profit. Quiet often the profit it earned out of hard work and sweat. The one thing that propels me these days is the belief in truth, She never called me after that, I think the game is over for now.