The Written Podcast: A Call From Another World?

We've heard and read many stories from all over the internet or strangers you've met on holidays, about what many automatically disbelief as fiction and mere stories passed down from person to person. Known by many on the internet as Creepypastas, a genre of stories centred around the darker aspects of fiction, written in the vernacular as if it actually happened to the person writing the story, even providing "proof" to add to the reader's experience. These stories are considered fiction, but what we don't know is how many of them are actually real, and the writer is putting it out there to get it off their chest, to tell those who are willing to read and be apart of the story.

Ghost stories, alien stories, time travelling stories, and even parallel universe hopping stories, everyone has had a weird enough experience that they simply cannot be explained, even if the reason behind what happened is totally rational and not at all what our minds jump to. Sometimes an experience can be so weird, it must be true. Fact can truly be stranger than fiction.

This weirdness didn't happen to me, but I was in the room with someone who experienced a something weird with the normal landline. It was mid-morning and my dad was at work. My mum and I were keeping ourselves entertained at home by watching TV and playing games on the computer. On occasion my dad phones our home to update on what's going on with his work, or simply to check up on how we are. We've had problems with the landline before, as many people who have them do, such as the phone itself wearing out, the connection disconnecting suddenly, but no incident quite like what happened to my mum when my dad phoned up as he have done so many times before.

The phone rang and my mum picked it up, instantly recognising the number. When she answered it, his voice was not who came over the speaker. It was a woman's voice, who was stating she had recently acquired a new phone and trying it out. Now, people accidentally phoning the wrong number happens all the time - all you have to do is get two digits the wrong way round and you connect to someone completely different to who you were intended to phone. When the embarrassment eventually subsides, you end the call and try redialling but this time with the right number. But this wasn't the case of the wrong number, but instead it was the right number phoned by the wrong person, and my mum even stated that she believes the stranger has her husband's number, but the woman simply repeated her statement, that she had recently acquired a new phone and was trying it out. Not only was this a strange call, but the connection was terrible as well, and not wanting to sound rude, mum tried to get the other person to hear her voice by speaking louder, but for the third time the woman stated that she had recently acquired a new phone and she was trying it out.

Knowing that she wasn't going to get through, instead of trying over and over, mum had no choice but to end the call. The stranger on the other end didn't surprise her, it was that the number which appeared on the screen was my dad's number. Sometimes, when you get a bad connection, the best cure is to end the call and phone straight back, so that's why mum does; she phones dad's number straight back. This time around, dad picks up, which once again surprised mum, because only moments ago there was a woman on the other end using his number.

Dad conveyed his surprise because he was about to reveal the strangest part about the whole experience. When mum answered the phone, his end connected perfectly and could hear her clearly. So, just to recap, my dad phoned the home number and it connected to our phone as normal, but when mum picked it up and answered as normal, dad's voice was not who came over the speaker, as if someone had intercepted the call. When mum stated that the stranger has her husband's number, he returned by saying that he was her husband, proving that the call had connected perfectly on his end.

That incident never happened before, nor has it happened since. Makes you wonder how often that happens to other people, if at all. Reading this article, of course it's hard to believe that someone from another world could have accidentally connected to our world via signals, and I'm sure there is someone out there who could provide a rational explanation as to what happened. But I cannot, and whilst it didn't happen directly to me, it is a story I can tell to those passing by or develop it as a creepypasta. Or maybe it truly was a call from another world.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)