The Call That Never Was

For a Halloween treat, I asked my ESL students to tell a story. One ESL student from Korea named "Sue" had one that sent shivers down my spine.

Nearly 4 years ago, when Sue was pregnant with her first child, she would contact her best friend "Jina" on a regular basis since Jina had experience with being pregnant. One evening, just like any other, Sue calls Jina on the phone. As usual, they engage in conversation about babies, gossip, and the like. However, one thing Jina noticed was that Sue's voice seemed lower than usual, even depressed. But she figured that it was pre-labor jitters, so she let it be.

About a week later, Sue calls Jina again. Sue said she just got back home from skiing with her boyfriend. Jina was very disturbed by this because 1) Sue is married and 2) she was 8 1/2 months pregnant at the time. Alarmed by this, Jina asks Sue when she started dating this guy and if her husband knows. At this point, Sue starts acting distant and cold. Abruptly, she says she has to go and hangs up.

It wasn't until four months ago that finally, Jina decided to ask her about those two particular phone calls. The thing is, Sue said she never had those conversations with her. Now, you have to know Sue, because if you did, you would realize that she is very level headed and wouldn't subject her friends to prank calls at night. To Jina's surprise, and confusion, she swears it was Sue's voice, and she even called her by her name. Nevertheless, Sue knows she didn't make those calls. The creepiest part: Jina's caller ID indicated the calls were coming from Sue's house.