A Call for Help

[00:00:00] Welcome to Scary Story Podcast. How do ghosts communicate? Today's stories are about the strange ways that they reach us, or give us a warning. My name is Edwin. Here's a scary story. I listened to the voicemail so many times after George died.

[00:00:26] Hey babe, it looks like I can't go out tonight. Dad needs the car. I'll walk to your place and bring food instead, is that alright? Let me know. I'll call you back after your hour-long shower, I guess.

[00:00:36] Back then it was not that common to text each other like we do now, and I'm very glad that we used to call like that. Otherwise I wouldn't have his voice recorded on my phone and on my computer.

[00:00:47] I wasn't taking a shower when he called, but I noticed the message just when I was about to hop in there. We had agreed to go to our high school basketball game and then go out to eat.

[00:00:57] But walking through those long roads between neighborhoods and our houses was something I was not a fan of, but George used to love it. He lived at the end of the street that was on the side of a hill,

[00:01:07] basically the only house since the other two were empty. The city had some trouble with the water or electrical power making it all the way there, but George's family had figured it out and got that place for a good price when they came into town.

[00:01:22] They installed some type of generator system on the side of the house and stored water and huge water tanks. They also had filters in their backyard. Nobody would tell them no, George would say, when I casually asked if that was even legal for them to do.

[00:01:38] George was like that. He simply knew how to figure things out, just like his parents. So that night, George figured out another way to get us to hang out, even though I did not like him walking around in the evening across town.

[00:01:52] Walking to the game and then going out was going to take some convincing for me, so he went for the next best thing. He left his house at 7.10pm, made it to Burger Blimp at 7.21pm, according to the receipt that was found in his pocket.

[00:02:08] He got us three cheeseburgers and one large order of fries. At around 7.35pm, he was crossing the street, got hit by a white truck with a broken windshield, a large spare tire on the bed of it, license plates ending in 5.79.

[00:02:27] That's the way it was described on the radio and the way it appeared on the newspapers the following morning. The windshield was not broken before the truck struck George on the corner of Flower and Main Street. He died on the way to the hospital.

[00:02:40] The time after the accident was tough for all of us, but I could not get over the fact that I would no longer be with him. I replayed the voicemail that he left for me, even though he did call back and asked me if I wanted to shake,

[00:02:57] because there was a new place on the way to my house. In my mind, the conversation became a blur and it hurts to imagine what could have been different had I said something else or simply not answered.

[00:03:11] No, I told him. I liked the burgers from that other place, the place he had gotten them last time. Ah, he said. Yeah, I'll go there instead. No George, I should have said.

[00:03:22] He had told me all about that shake and I knew that he loved the Oreo one. He had talked about it for days. It would wake me up in the middle of the night, hoping it would simply be a bad dream,

[00:03:35] like those where I wake up sweating and scared that something bad just happened, and then sigh of relief when my mind realizes that I had just been making the whole thing up, all while I slept. But I was numbed.

[00:03:51] My friends at school didn't know what to say to me after he died, but it didn't matter to me. Mom and Dad would update me on the guy with the whole white truck and broken windshield thing,

[00:04:01] and then they also told me about the lawyer and the court dates and everything. It was all just words to me. I missed a few days of school, but on the day I got back,

[00:04:11] I saw a car George used to drive and it was parked right by the gate. I walked up to George's dad, his elbow and part of his forearm hanging out the window. The arm quickly made its way back when he finally saw me.

[00:04:25] He opened the car door at the same time as George's mom. His mom rushed over to me and you could tell she had not slept in days. Listen, how are you? She asked, quickly interrupting my answer with something she wanted to say,

[00:04:39] but then froze during her first word. Her husband continued it for her. We can't stay here anymore. He looked down at his shoes and then back up at me. We found a place. He gave me their phone numbers, new addresses and then asked for mine.

[00:04:58] I looked at my sloppy handwriting as I wrote everything down for them, comparing it to the neatly written note that George's mom had left for me. The same one that I would put on the wall in front of my desk and my bedroom,

[00:05:11] the one I would see every single day. Turns out they were moving across the state. I understood their explanation. They had no reason to stay there and I understood how tough those memories could be. The trial was quick and it was over.

[00:05:27] The man was sentenced and George's parents had suffered enough. It might have been their way of coping and I wondered if it would work. He used to bother me going the same places that we used to visit and not having him with me.

[00:05:41] There were times when I wondered what I had to do in order to move across the state myself. We need to get you help, mom said to me one time.

[00:05:50] It had been several weeks that I refused to eat more than a quarter of my plate at dinner time. I felt a rush of anger and ran up to my room pulling out my cell phone and playing the voicemail time and time again. Yes George, that sounds fine.

[00:06:10] Please call me later, I would say to myself over and over again. My friends caught on to how sad I was feeling and they really did try to help. I appreciated that so much. They would bring me my favorite snacks and offer to hang out after school.

[00:06:26] I would always refuse until Ellie asked me if I wanted to drive by George's house. Without any hesitation, I agreed. I had him back there in over a month. I don't know why it made me feel better just imagining it.

[00:06:42] I waited by Ellie's car after school that day. Her and my other friend Maria hopped on as we worked our way across town until that old street by the hill. We rolled up slowly and parked right in front of the house.

[00:06:55] I noticed that the grass had grown a little bit taller now. But it was strange to see a house without curtains. I got out of the car and walked over to the empty yard. The chair, the table, everything. Gone.

[00:07:10] It was near sunset when Ellie and Maria carefully asked me if I was ready to go. Yes, sorry, I responded. Wiping some of the dry tracks my tears had left under my eyes. The drive home was a blur once more, but I felt a little better.

[00:07:26] I wanted to lay on my bed and play the voicemail. I wanted to go back to his house, to walk up to it and have him open the door just at the right moment. Looking at the wide smile he would give me right before his hugs.

[00:07:40] And I did. The next few days after school I would walk in the opposite direction into his house and walk the full 40 minutes or so it would take me to walk back to mine. While I walked I felt the urge to scream and to tell him George, please.

[00:07:56] I am sorry. I would get him a thousand Oreo shakes if I could and I would walk to the basketball games and follow him on his walks. Everything. I wished I could promise to comment on his quirky observations of this town

[00:08:09] and listen to how he fixed the generator with his dad the last time it broke down. I had arrived to his house and I was thinking all about his voicemail and her phone call. Please, I beg you, I am sorry.

[00:08:23] I felt the tears rolled down my face once again as I thought about how he framed the question about the shake asking if I wanted one when he was the one who wanted it. The way he quickly agreed to my suggestion

[00:08:36] where he must have walked and what he must have thought about right before the accident. I am sorry I said out loud. Now by his front door next to the curtainless window of the living room. My phone rang.

[00:08:50] It was likely my parents and they knew where I was so I simply ignored it by pressing the volume button and stared out into the street. Son was about to set and I had to start my walk back home.

[00:09:03] It was just about to turn the corner when my phone vibrated with a short notification. I reached for my pocket and looked at the phone screen. New voicemail notification from a number that seemed familiar to me but I couldn't place a finger on it.

[00:09:19] I pressed play only to be fooled by a strange sound of static on the other end. I played the eight seconds of it again closer to my ear. It was like the wind. It was spring softly. I put my phone away and continued walking.

[00:09:35] It was dark when I got home, mom and dad in the living room saying hi to me as I walked up the stairs to my room. I reached for my phone charger to play George's voicemail just once. At least that's what I told myself.

[00:09:47] When I looked at the note stuck against the wall, the note George's mom had left for me. Through tears again I read the top part. In case you need it, it was followed by the old phone number and the new phone number.

[00:10:05] I asked me to update my address book with their new one. I dropped the note on the desk before I rushed for my jacket pocket to get my phone. My hands were shaking as I got to the list of notifications inside. Voicemail from George's old home phone number.

[00:10:24] George had always called me from his cell and I never saved his home phone number. I dialed back right away but the call could not be completed. I dialed again and I got the same message.

[00:10:36] In a panic I called the new number getting an answer from the familiar voice of George's mom. I skipped the greetings and asked her if the old number from their old house was still working.

[00:10:46] She said that I had been deactivated but asked if everything was okay on my end. I told her I had gotten a call from it. I could feel she was feeling bad for me even over the phone and gave me some explanations of how it could have happened.

[00:11:02] I hung up with confusion and an odd sense of relief. George could always figure things out when I needed help. Interference. It was in the early stages of our relationship, you know, the late phone calls, the butterflies in your stomach, all that.

[00:11:43] We used to text all day and then talk until late at night. Sometimes even on regular school nights. My mom used to knock on my wall to tell me to keep it down but she also knew what was happening. She had been my age at one point.

[00:11:58] One night I was on the phone at around midnight and I was fully awake. We spoke for four hours about favorite foods and hobbies and about her friends and funny stories.

[00:12:08] It seemed like the conversation could have gone for hours more if it hadn't been for one of the strangest stories I still share with my friends to this day. It was almost 3am and I brought it up in conversation. You know, I mentioned.

[00:12:23] They say that evil things happen at 3 in the morning. We laughed about it and soon enough we started talking about scary things, legends and the stories of things that our uncles, friends, friend had experienced and stuff like that. Well, it's 3am so I think we are safe now.

[00:12:40] Nothing happened. That's when another voice came in. A man's voice. Talking about a phone plan that was expiring and then he complained about his girlfriend. I laughed nervously at the thought of hearing someone say something so random, but also wondered how that voice ended up in the line.

[00:13:00] Was that you? I asked. The answer was no. It was not me either. He paused for a few seconds unable to for the first time come up with something to say right away.

[00:13:13] Suddenly the deepest laugh came through the line and now for me to freak out and drop my phone. I landed against the wall in between the edge of the bed, just about to fall to the floor.

[00:13:25] I managed to grab it on time with the sound of my name. Was that you? No, how could I have made a sound like that? You both heard the sounds of deep painful cries coming through our phones now.

[00:13:38] I don't know how I managed to keep my ears stuck to the phone but it sent chills down my spine. Neither of us had dialed in someone else to a three-way phone call and neither of us had dialed from a shared phone line.

[00:13:51] That night we ended up texting instead while we searched on our phones as to what could have caused a random person to join. From what we found the calls using our type of signal should have been encrypted.

[00:14:02] Supposedly that stops people from hearing our conversations or for two phone calls to interfere with each other. That night we both got calls from each other, at least they showed up as missed calls right away. But neither of us had made those calls.

[00:14:21] To this day I don't know what happened and we both sort of unofficially agreed to text instead. I told my parents about it and they called the phone company to try to figure out what was happening, mainly concerned about someone listening in to our phone calls.

[00:14:36] But they said to call them if it ever happened again. My friends had other theories though. They suspected it was a conversation about scary things that made it happen, while others firmly believed that it had something to do with the 3am thing.

[00:14:52] But a quick online search showed me that I wasn't the only one. I'm sure it could happen to you too. The following story is about a ghostly phone call. It is called What Ghost Sound Like.

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[00:16:47] When you think of a dispatch, you might be thinking of something cool like those people who answer 911 calls and send ambulances and police officers. But my job is not like that.

[00:16:57] In my city I am part of a company that has a 24-7 customer service for a plumbing thing. Some of these things are serious like leaks and entire apartment floors flooding knee high

[00:17:08] but others are just embarrassing calls from people around town that are freaking out over them clogging the toilet. My choice of words as they describe what they see is hilarious to listen to. Fortunately I'm not the one doing the visits.

[00:17:23] I just take the calls and take care of the billing, payments and other stuff like that. When I get a call I can tell them what to do and to shut off the water line and things like that.

[00:17:32] I tell them that a professional will be with them soon, depending on the urgency of the phone call. The entire night staff is made up of four people and we take turns taking the weekend gigs.

[00:17:43] One night we were discussing the upcoming holiday weekend when two of them started telling me about a strange call they had gotten. A ghost call. They were having their usual burgers from the place across the street waiting for the phone to ring, literally when it did.

[00:17:59] The first one answered and greeted the potential client. Blah blah blah how can I help you? He described what he thought were whispers on the other end of the line. You then put the call on speakerphone. Soon he heard a grunt and then the person hung up.

[00:18:15] I think it was one of those weirdos that made calls to food labels and respond to magazine writers over email. With nothing to do in the middle of the night. Someone playing a prank on us.

[00:18:26] We wouldn't get pranked often, but we had instructions on how to block those types of callers and that would stop the problem for a little while. Yeah we were bored at times so we would get fascinated by things like these.

[00:18:38] Anything was a good story at two or three in the morning. We'll be waited for that phone to ring. But weekends like I said were another story. No no the first guy said trying to make a story interesting. It happened again.

[00:18:53] Yeah it was weird it sounded like a ghost the other guy added to it. What the heck does a ghost sound like anyway? I wondered to myself. I simply laughed and reached for a stale french fry that was on the desk.

[00:19:06] Then it was my turn to take the weekend calls with another girl and things would be normal for a little bit. She was usually pretty calm and she had been working there for a long time so she knew how to solve some of the bigger problems.

[00:19:18] I wouldn't even think about telling her about the strange phone calls that the others were talking about. She was one of those people that take their job very seriously. Do you know what I mean? Still she was cool to work with.

[00:19:31] So we both sat at our desks while filling out some of the end of the month reports and she was working on some other tasks. When my phone rang. I sent the welcome message and asked how we could help them.

[00:19:43] That's when I heard a faint voice of a young child on the other end. Hi hello she said. One four seven Blooming Lane. I wrote it down automatically but I hesitated on what to say next. Um okay sorry. Hello what is wrong?

[00:20:03] Thank you the little voice said and hung up. I kept the phone against my ear for a little bit before Gabby the co-worker asked if I was alright. I explained the phone call to her giving her the address and everything and she wrote it down.

[00:20:19] I think it was a bit of a habit to write down addresses as soon as we hear them. Did you send the van? She asked knowing very well that I hadn't.

[00:20:28] She started dialing the driver's phone number looking over to me and asking but what service did they need? I was just about to answer when she started giving the address to a driver who was near that area.

[00:20:40] Asking him to be there and that she would get back to him with the contact information. Gabby hung up and then looked over to me. I told her it was a little girl who had called and that it might have been a prank.

[00:20:51] She was about to call back the driver when her desk phone rang. It was the driver. It was loud and sounded stressed out. Gabby took a few notes and then stood up to call the supervisor.

[00:21:04] She told me that the driver had been greeted by a child with one of our magnets, the one to stick on her fridge. It was held tightly in her hands. She opened the door and pointed toward the stairs.

[00:21:16] He glanced over to it and rushed up to a woman who had fallen down the stairs and was unconscious. He reached for his phone. He called 911 and ran back to his truck to get the first aid kit while he listened for instructions.

[00:21:28] When he hung up and called the office, he said he was looking for the woman's daughter so that he would report back once he helped out with the incident report.

[00:21:37] Fortunately, the woman recovered and she gave us a visit when she got the full version of how she was found by the emergency services workers. The little girl had gotten her phone number from the magnet that has the information for our emergency line.

[00:21:56] It was made for plumbing emergencies. Her mom had kept the list of numbers and a note with their home address stuck on the refrigerator door. Even though the description of the plumber and the tone of her sound in the call recording matched the description of the woman's daughter,

[00:22:14] it was tough to accept that as is. You see, the woman's daughter had died several months before. Scary Story Podcast is written and produced by me, Edwin Cobar Rubias. To get notified when new stories come out, make sure you are following this show on the app.

[00:22:41] You can also get notified via email if you enter it over on scarystorypodcast.com. Until next time, thank you very much for listening.