The Phone Call

I waited anxiously on the couch for my dad to finish his call on his work cell. Being one of the supervisors at the plant, getting calls on the weekend was common. Too often, the calls resulted in him having to drive out to the plant to resolve something. I hoped that wouldn’t happen today, we only had a few hours to finish the movie. He finally hung up the phone and came into the family room.

“Alright, let’s get started,” he said as he opened up the DVD case.

“If you get any more phone calls, your son will have to watch the movie without you,” my mom said from the kitchen. “The movie has to be back to the rental store by five, and you need to pick up the other kids then as well.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get it finished,” my dad replied. “Can’t have the younger kids watching this, or we’ll never get any sleep.”

The last time my younger siblings had watched a movie with scary scenes in it, three had slept in my parents’ bed for several nights. They wouldn’t be able to get through a full horror movie, let alone one that was being called the scariest one ever. I had been waiting for weeks to watch it, ever since my friend’s sister had raved about it. Finally all my siblings were at friends’ houses, and my dad had the time to watch it with me. He insisted, just in case there was something I shouldn't be seeing at my age.

My mom had chosen to not join us, saying she wanted to work on some crafts. My dad and I both knew it was because she didn’t want to get scared. She was fine with movies she had already seen when she was younger, and knew where all the jump scenes were. She was not on board with a movie that was supposed to be this scary, and this new Japanese style horror added to the unknown.

The movie started, and it was a unique horror experience. It was different, suspenseful, and so much was unknown. As the plot moved forward, I learned more and became more confused. It was also much less gory than I had expected, which was a bit of disappointment.

Then came the scene where the killer video was shown. As the scene started to play, my dad looked down at his pager.

“Sorry son, I have to take this,” he said as he stood up.

“I’m not pausing it,” I replied.

“Just fill me in on what I missed,” he said as he walked out of the room.

The scene continued, showing the strange movie. Then came the phone call, and the woman heard the voice give the timeline.

Then our home phone began to ring, and I ignored it. One of my parents would get it.

“Son, please get the phone,” my mom called from her bedroom. “It might be someone needing to talk to your dad.”

“He’s already talking to someone from work,” I replied.

“Pause the movie and answer the phone,” she ordered.

With a dramatic teenage groan, I reluctantly paused the movie and walked over to the phone. I answered it, fully expecting someone to ask for my dad.

“Hello.”

“Seven days,” the voice on the other end rasped.

My heart began beating fast, chills ran through my limbs, my hair stood up, and my breathe almost stopped. The movie wasn’t real, there was no way this was happening. Something wasn’t right. I turned to call for help from someone.

There at the end of the hall stood my dad. He held his cell phone in his hand, and the biggest gotcha smile on his face. It took me a few seconds before I caught up to reality. I yelled at him that it wasn’t funny as he burst out laughing.

When he finally stopped laughing and I finally stopped being mad at him, he explained that he had known about the video and phone call for a while. One of his friends had told him about the movie, and had even played a similar prank on his kids. So when I had told my parents I wanted to see this movie, he had begun the plan to get me with a phone call of my very own. Once I was over my embarrassment, I begrudgingly admitted he had gotten me good. We finished the movie and got it back to the rental store before the late fees started.

This story still comes up in family gatherings, though over the years I’ve learned to embrace it as one of my better embarrassing moments. Though I never did watch another horror movie alone with my dad, just in case he had a similar plan in the future.