My cell phone rang at 2:41 a.m. today. I had been in a deep sleep and was more than a little confused when I answered.
Me: “Hello, this is Newley.”
Woman with an American accent: “Oh, Hi is this John in…?”
Me: “Sorry, no. I think you have the wrong number. This is Newley in Bangkok.”
Woman: “Oh, wow, sorry about that. You’re in Bangkok, Maine?”
Me: “No, no. Bangkok, Thailand.”
Woman [laughing]: “Oh, wow. That’s amazing! Sorry!”
Me: “That’s okay. It’s a small world.*”
Then I hung up.
Two notes and an asterisk:
1. I think she meant Bangor, Maine, although she clearly said “Bangkok, Maine.” I assume she was calling from somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, because…
2. I have a Washington, DC area code phone number that routes, via Skype, to my cell phone here in Thailand.
If I was confused that a strange woman was calling me from America in the middle of the night, imagine how bewildered she must have been to dial a DC-area code number and reach…an English-speaking stranger in Thailand.
*I’m not sure exactly what I meant by “it’s a small world.” I imagine I was trying to say something along the lines of:
“Hey, isn’t it nuts how in this crazy day and age you can be just, like, trying to call your buddy John to say come on over to our surprise party tonight for Martha, who’s turning 50, and be sure to bring some of those Lays chips that she likes, and also a card, and then next thing you know the streams are crossed because of a solar flare and you’re talking to somebody totally different on the other side of the world — can you believe cell phones these days?”
But it didn’t come out like that.