You just never know who is on the other end of the phone

So scares or scares today. My cell phone rings when I am at the office, and I look at the caller id, not recognizing the phone number. Expecting a phone call in regards to getting automatic start put in both mine and my mother’s cars I pick up, with an extra friendly ‘hello.’

**precursor to this entry: I have answer back ring tones on my cell phone.**

Me: “Hello?”

Caller: *laughing* “You have music on your cell phone now?”

Me: (not recognizing the voice) Yes I do. Whom am I speaking to?

Caller: “”You know who this is. What are you doing?”

Me: “No…I don’t know who this is. Whom am I speaking to?”

Caller: “Your dad.”

Me: “I highly doubt that, because I don’t have a dad.”

And there it is. My heart stopping. Because my father has elected not to speak to me since I was 20 years old….I hadn’t seen him since I was 18 and suing him for child support, so I could attend college. Because, you see…the man who is my father is a selfish, manipulative man. This is a person who when I was 15 told me he was: ‘angry at my mother for having me and wished I was never born.’ He also told me that ‘He didn’t want me or love me.” There is a lot of stuff that this man (whom I only refer to as my father when pressed) did to me in the past. But it has taken me a long time to forgive him, and move on, for MY benefit.

I was fortunate to have my mom’s oldest brother be a HUGE part of my life. My Uncle Frank was everything from my hero, to my best friend, to my partner-in-crime, to my ‘dad’. Sure, like any real father & daughter, we had our ups and downs….but above all my Uncle Frank and I were the light in one another’s lives. Unfortunately, he passed away 6 years ago.

So when I got the response from the caller, this morning as: “Your dad.” I panicked. Because (A) I knew it wasn’t Uncle Frank calling from beyond the grave. (B) And if it was indeed, my father calling…how the hell did he get my cell number. But it was neither of these. It was simply a man who misdialed his phone, when attempting to call his own daughter. I confirmed that when he read me off the number he thought he reached. I could tell he was embarrassed, and I was pleasant enough to let him know there were no hard feelings about the wrong call.