The Phone Booth Rang

The translucent phone booth rang out loud. There was no one standing in it.

She froze. 

She was walking from the train station as she does every other day, across the pedestrian crossing towards a park -

a park filled with tents, while homelessness rages the ground of greenery that adorned this south suburb of the city but yet she walks -

past beautiful character 60’s brickwork federation warehouses now transformed to rows of shophouses, coffee makers & gin distillers. 

That’s exactly when the telephone rang. 

The booth was located on the edge of the street, far from her radius of the path towards her intended red door into her office.

She often glanced at it whilst looking at traffic ; mornings are worst with most drivers, although a quite suburb - students & backpackers seem to think they rule the road.

So she was careful. But today was different. Today she froze.

She looked at the area surrounding the booth and recalled Kiefer Sutherland sitting in a high rise with a sniper rifle aimed at Collin Farrell, that can’t be possible - no high rises near the station.

She took her step forward and reached the booth, the phone rang startling her - so she grabbed the receiver and reluctantly placed it on her right ear. 

“ Hello? “ the voice on the other end beckoned.

She recognised the voice. It was her own. 

“Hello - who are you? “ she asked, questioning her foresight -

“Listen, I have no time to explain - “ said the other voice calmly, “ when you return to your office, watch the laneway - a car will hit you at precisely 0851 hours - you will be disabled as I am now making this call. The HOW does not matter. The WHY does - please save yourself.”

The line hung up. She pulled out her mobile phone and looked at the time on it - it said 8:47AM.

She dropped the receiver, unaware it was still in her grasp with the disconnected tone ringing in the background as she hurried towards her office.

When she got to the laneway, she froze again. It seemed longer this time, and she clicked her mobile phone to see the time - it said 8:50AM. 

She waited, and sure enough - a black sedan whizzed back, braking at the corner of the one way street and dragging the vehicle sideways before roaring the engine forward. 

Behind it, police sirens rang - soon enough a patrol car circled the same corner. 

She sighed - still in disbelief of the phone call she had.

As she crossed the laneway, a few steps towards the red door, she pulled out her keys and accidentally dropped it, so she bend down and grabbed it -

That’s when it happened. The article in the locals the next day would read :

A scooter driven by a backpacker on a joy ride slammed into her, breaking her spine in two junctures. 

In the distance, the phone rang once again.

Close by, a man heard the ringing. 

From a distance, he followed it - found the receiver and picked it up.

What he heard was his own voice on THE other END.