My Blunders vol. 24: That sound in the middle of the night

Its funny how weird you act when you are disturbed in the middle of your slumber. Just moments back, I heard the sound of my landline phone ringing and i remembered the incident that occurred to me last night when i was deep in my sleep. The phone ringer that sounded totally normal just now sounded totally alien and that caused quite a confusion with me. As I was extremely tired due to my day long meeting (even on sunday), I retired to bed early as I had to take a break in my sleep to see a cousin off. So, I slept at 11:30 PM.

It was around 2:15 in the morning when my sleep was interrupted by some continuous ringing sound. Initially it sounded very distant as if it started in a dream but sono my mind got conscious that this ringing sound was from the real world not from the dream. But the dilemma was that my mind couldn’t correlate the sound with the source. It was very loud very crude ringing sound. At first i thought about door bell but the idea was immediately rejected as i knew my door bell is very melodic, then my thoughts wandered towards fixed phone but the idea was again rejected as it never sounded like it. The sound resembled like a fire alarm. The only possible source i could think of was that the sound was coming from another phone and that another phone wasn’t mine.

So, I nudged my brother and in sleepy voice ordered him to attend to his cellphone. His reply “STFU – Its not mine” got me out of my sleepy thoughts. I sat on the bed with the mysterious source still ringing. Suddenly It dawned upon me – GodDammit, it was the landline phone which i had earlier dismissed that was ringing. Ringing of my landline phone at this hour of night is never good news. I hoped for the best and rushed towards the lounge where the phone was placed. I picked up but there was no sound coming from the other side. I cursed the phone and the caller and headed back to bed and slept instantly.

Again in the sleep, I heard the same sound… same struggle with my brain about the source of the sound but this time i had known the source. The same damn phone ringing again. I rushed again and picked up the phone. No sound from the other end,

Me: ‘Hello??’
<NO SOUND FROM THE OTHER END>
Me: ‘Hellooooooooo’
A male voice: ’Hello?’
Me: ‘Yes?’
That male sound: ‘Hi, Edhi Ambulance?’
Me: ‘What?’ (my mind was still drowsy)
That male sound: ‘Are you from Edhi Ambulance Service?’
Me: ‘No, Sorry wrong number’.
That male sound: ‘oh, ok’
<HUNG UP>

I checked the time, It was still around 2:15 and i thought i had slept for hours between these two phone calls.
In any other situation, I would have grumbled a few obscenities after placing the phone, but the conversation was disturbing enough to keep me pondering. Somebody needed an ambulance and dialed a wrong number… Great! Those precious seconds that he wasted talking to me could have made a difference in saving somebody’s life. The more I thought, The more disgusted I felt about myself. Why the hell didn’t I tell him the number? I had that number stored in my cellphone. Somebody needed help and i was too sleepy to help him.
The only thing i could do after this mishap was to say a silent prayer for the person who needed an ambulance. Prayed to God to have mercy on the soul of the person who needed that ambulance.

… and then I went back to sleep as if nothing ever happened.