Behind You
I got a call this afternoon from the girl who’d given me that vanishing babysitting job. Okay, it is a very, very strange circumstance. Something is awry and I wish I knew what!
This is the full story as I know it. So, a few Fridays ago I got a message on the machine first thing in the morning from a girl who needed a babysitter. I’d never heard of her before, but my friends from church gave her my name. This in itself was a little odd, considering I’ve never babysat for them; I haven’t even really talked to Lee much since he and Kristen broke up ages ago, and I’ve met Tina briefly on only a few occasions. However, I did babysit for Lee’s sister Christy on Lee’s wedding night, so I guess that’s close enough. Plus we did hang out fairly often after church for a while there, so I suppose he would know that I like kids and stuff. Anyways! So on the answering machine she said that her regular sitter had canceled and she needed a replacement for that night, Friday. I called her back and said it was all good, and she said she’d pick me up at 6:00.
Thing is, she didn’t. I waited for a while but eventually decided that they weren’t coming. I thought maybe there was some kind of emergency or something, because when I called the number she left me there was no answer. It was strange but I knew there’d be some explanation.
She called back today and she said that on that Friday she went out and when she came back at around 4 PM, there was a new message on her machine from a woman (calling on my behalf, what the hell) saying that I couldn’t babysit for her because I had previous arrangements. She interpreted this to be my mom and had to scramble for a sitter at the last minute.
My mother did not make that call, and no one else knew that I was sitting for them. Now seriously, cue for twilight zone music. That is just flat out strange.
The most boring explanation is that her answering machine fritzed and made an old message appear as a new one, and maybe she thought that a message from the other sitter (one one that did cancel) was about me. That is the only scenario, to me, that doesn’t involve: psychosis, schizophrenia, a stalker, alternate universes, multiple personalities, a life-long lie, a long-lost twin, etc.
Ever since I can remember, ever since I’ve had the capability to think about such things, I’ve had that feeling where I thought a huge revelation was coming. Something that, when it arrived, would shatter my every paradigm. (You know, something akin to “you’re a wizard, Harry,” or “you’re the moon princess from so long ago; right in front of me and I didn’t even know,” or “tonight, we’re taking you back to your father, King Stefan,” or… I’m trying to think of a not nerdy example, but nothing is coming. Joan of Arc? Yes!) That feeling has faded a lot since childhood, but it’s strange, unexplainable stuff like this that makes me kind of wonder sometimes.
Another abstract thought: can you imagine a world without miscommunication? What if every single word, gesture, concept, idea was objectively interpreted exactly how it was intended to be interpreted. Think about it.
