Hello?

I laid in bed waiting for sleep to consume me. Just when my eyes grew heavy and I found myself caught between reality and the dream world, I heard a phone ring.

I was about to check my phone wondering who could be calling and just how important it could be, at this hour.

And then I realized my ringtone didn’t even sound remotely like the ringing phone I heard.

Rrring! Rrring!

The ringing phone was noticeably loud and drawn out and sounded like one of those antique rotary phones. I sat straight up at this very realization, my eyes wide with confusion.

I scanned the dark room trying to make sense of the ringing phone. What was even more perplexing was that I didn’t even have a landline. I had given that up years ago.

I was so dumbfounded by where the mysterious ringing was coming from that it took me a moment to realize it had stopped.

Silence. Not a sound except for the usual I hear night after night. The ticking clock. The singing cicadas. The whoosh of the occasional car passing by. No phone ringing.

I waited a few more seconds before slipping back under the covers. I laid still waiting and waiting for the phone to ring again before brushing it off as a dream. My mind deceiving me at my most vulnerable between the dream world and reality.

I let my body get comfortable again and closed my eyes.

Rrring! Rrring!

My eyes shot open and this time I threw myself out of bed and turned the light on.

Rrring! Rrring!

Not thinking clearly and caught somewhere between fear and annoyance (it was 1 o’ clock in the morning and I just wanted to sleep), I started opening up every drawer. My night stand drawer. My dresser drawers. I opened the closet door and rummaged through every box haphazardly throwing things to the side like a mad person.

I naturally followed the source of where the ringing was coming from, but as I attempted to do so, I realized that the ringing was coming from nowhere in particular. It seemed to be coming from all directions at once. I had to be losing my mind. I hesitated before shutting my closet door and turning back towards my room.

That’s when I saw it. A small toy phone lying in the middle of the floor. It was my youngest child’s phone. I swear it wasn’t there before. I walked towards it slow. Almost afraid.

No. It couldn’t be. I heard that toy phone go off more times than I care to keep count. It’s ring did not sound remotely close to that. I picked up the phone and turned it over.

Rrring! Rrring!

My heart skipped, my face grew pale, and I nearly dropped the phone. I switched the toy phone off maybe a little too forcefully than needed. There! That was the end of that!

I placed the phone on top my nightstand for now and turned out the lights. I laid there letting my body get comfortable again and ready to succumb to sleep.

Rrring! Rrring!

The ringing chilled me to my core as I lied there under the covers unable to move. There was no way. I turned that phone off. I lied there debating what to do. I was actually and pathetically afraid of a kid’s toy phone!

It continued to ring as I reached over and grabbed it off the stand. Why I did what I did next, I do not know.

I answered it.

“Hello?”

There was no sound, obviously as anyone would expect with a kid’s toy phone. And then, I heard it. First as dial tone and then the laughter of a child. The child’s voice echoed on the other end of the receiver with a chilling high pitched ghostly laughter.

“Hello?” the ghostly child’s voice giggled tauntingly.

I dropped the phone on my bed and stared at it in a trance of sheer disbelief. This wasn’t possible! This phone wasn’t even real!

I ripped open the back of the phone, tore out the batteries, and threw them in my night stand. Now it would be impossible for this phone to make any noise.

I fell back onto my bed my mind whirling with exhaustion. I calmed myself and took a deep breath. It was over. I could finally go to sleep.

Rring! Rring!

I grabbed the phone and heard the ghostly child’s laughter again. It was faint yet pierced me with fear.

“Leave me alone!” I yelled into the toy phone, my voice shaking. Unsure of what to do next and very well because I might have lost my mind, I took the phone outside, and threw it as far as I could into my back yard. If it did ring, I wouldn’t hear it. I went back inside, my heart pounding. I took a slow breath. It was over. No. This time, it really was over!

The next morning, I saw the phone laying in the grass and picked it up. There was nothing unusual about it. Even though the back was off and the batteries removed, I held the phone up to my ear, almost afraid.

“Hello?” No chilling child’s laughter. No sound whatsoever. I dropped the toy phone back onto the ground.

It was absolutely pathetic that I would be afraid of a toy phone.