UNKNOWN CALLS

An exasperated parent who has repeatedly warned his children to stop answering unknown calls decided to teach the kids a lesson. Every day after a hard day’s work, he is inundated by messages from unknown phone numbers answered by his children. There are calls from General Bill Collector, Wireless Cable Company, Friend of the Court, Enemy of the Court and so on. By taking messages from these debt collectors, the debt collectors have achieved their aim of contacting the debtor through his children. To further make their point, the calls will be followed by a letter stating that Bryan, Tom, or Monica took a message for Mr. Debtor.

Mr. Debtor hatched a plan to teach his children a lesson that will remain indelible in their minds. He dialed*67 and placed an unknown call to his house. As usual, one of the children answered. Disguising his voice, he told Bryan that his dad has an appointment tomorrow at 6:00 pm with 2 people who would be dressed in white robes. They must pass on this message because it is very important. Bryan shared the message with his siblings. On coming home that day, they could not wait to pass on the very important message to Mr. Debtor. Mr. Debtor inwardly smiled devilishly and promised to be home by 5:30 pm as he would not want to miss his important appointment.

The next day as prearranged, he had two of his work colleagues dress in white robes and were to arrive at his door at 6:00 pm promptly. At 5:45 pm the frantic children were calling their dad to remind him of his important appointment. He reassured them that he was on his way home and that if his visitors arrived before he did, they should implore them to wait. At 6:00 pm the two white robed visitors arrived and Mr. Debtor was nowhere in sight. They knocked on the door and the children let them in. Their dad had warned them not to let anybody into the house in his absence even if they thought that it was God. Another costly mistake. The visitors in an eerie voice scolded the kids for not passing their message to their dad. They almost swore that they passed on the message. Bryan, the oldest one called their dad on the speakerphone and he confirmed to the hearing of the visitors that he was on his way home. An accident on the highway had delayed his arrival.

The visitors were in no mood to wait for Mr. Debtor and informed the children that they were angels sent by God to bring their dad to God and once they took their dad away, they will never see him again. The children started crying uncontrollably. After waiting for 5 minutes, they left telling the children that they had other people to take to heaven and promised to be back by 6:00 pm tomorrow. A few minutes later, their dad arrived and feigned surprise at seeing his children crying uncontrollably. “Dad,” they said in unison, “God sent 2 angels to take you away but luckily you were not home.” Dad in turn responded, “Now you understand why you do not answer unknown calls or open the door for strangers.” They all promised never to answer unknown calls forever or open doors for strangers. Dad was warned by his children not to come back before 7:00 pm the next day. As planned, dad’s colleagues never showed up the next day and Mr. Debtor’s children never answered unknown calls or opened doors for strangers forever!