Have you ever received a strange or mysterious phone call?

a reply to: WUNK22


My old landline phone used to dial by itself on the hook (wall phone), rang a few times too, nobody there but a strange almost wind sound.

Also, some woman called me for months, speaking very fast, couldn't make out the language.

a reply to: beetee

I've got a mysterious person story.

When I was in my early 20's, my husband and I lived in San Antonio Texas. This was 17 years ago mind you. He was in the military and we had walked into the PX when a tiny--maybe 4'10", elderly--perhaps 70's or even 80's, reasonably well dressed, Asian woman came up to me quite quickly and suddenly. I was following a few steps behind my husband lolly-gagging and this woman comes up and grabs my left arm. She had a vice grip for such a tiny and frail looking person. Stopped me in my tracks. I wasn't sure if she needed help, or... what.

I look down at her (mind you I'm only 5'3" (ish) lock eyes with her and I see she is just frantic. She tightens her grip on my arm and says in a heavily accented but clear voice: "Do you remember?!" Although it sounded more like Do yooo (she drew that word out) remembah?. I looked at her, baffled. She looks frustrated, and shakes my arm and says again as she's shaking me "Do you remember?!"

I'm at a loss now. Clearly, she is mistaking me for someone else and might have dementia. I put my right hand over hers on my left arm, trying to comfort her but prepared to peel her off in case she gets more frantic, although I wasn't sure if I could without hurting her. She was outrageously strong and had a grip like death on my arm. With my hand over hers I say (don't ask me why I said it this way), "I'm sorry grandmother, I don't remember".

It just crushed her. Crestfallen, her hand fell away and I walked away from her because I was unsure what to say to make it better. I looked back and she was still standing there while everyone swirled around her watching me walk away. I rushed up to my husband and told him what happened but when we looked back, she wasn't there and a brief search didn't turn up anything.

Now, I would have blown this off as a crazy woman, but at the time my husband and I had been trying to conceive and unbeknownst to me I was newly pregnant when that woman approached me. A few months later, in a completely different part of town, in a fabric store I saw this woman again. Once more she approached me, put her hand on my arm, not nearly so hard this time and she was far more subdued, and she asked me again "Do you remember?" I looked at her, I actually was near tears because she was so upset last time, and I said once more, as gently as I could, nearly a whisper "I'm sorry, grandmother, I just don't remember". She looked sad but stepped away and wandered off to another part of the store. I locked eyes with her from across the store as I was leaving and she just looked sad and nodded once.

Officially, one of the weirdest things to happen to me. Any speculation on this bit of what the heck is welcome. I'm still baffled and I remember it with almost painful clarity to this day.

a reply to: redhorse

Hmph, that was strange.

It's a great sort of pattern interrupt though.

Whenever I find that I'm forgetting, forgetting the good and the true life and that quintessential childlike wonderment and glee, I am going to imagine a little old Asian lady grabbing me by the arm to ask me that question with plaintive urgency.

Btw, you're a GREAT writer. You could write a book and it would be I'm sure a gripping tale.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

yes i thought the same thing. could be a writer.

Glad to see your back, sorry about your loss......a reply to: KTemplar

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

Well thank you so much for the compliments guys. I appreciate it. I haven't had the courage to pursue writing seriously, but I might dip my toe in at least after all.

That's my only weird person story. Not spooky I guess, but it was intense, for me at least.

a reply to: redhorse

Maybe start with short stories.

You could write one called "Do you remember?"

You write as well as Stephen King, and that's reasonably good and good enough to get published.

a reply to: redhorse

Amazing story. Just wonderful. I can't help wondering if you have made any theories on this encounter yourself, through the years?

It would seem like she knew you, or someone like you, at one time. But at the same time that she was half expecting you not to remember her?

Very interesting.

Thank you for sharing it.

BT

Your story is very interesting. I think it would bother me a lot to never be able to know what it was all about.

Here's my story.

I used to work in phone sales. The computer would just route the next call to whatever operator was not on a call. So between calls you just waited to be connected. Once, when I got a connection, all I could hear was a bunch of voices whispering. There were children's voices and also men's and women's voices. They were all speaking at once, so I could barely make out anything any of them were saying. It was surreal. I listened so closely trying to get what they were saying and only hearing snippets. I do not remember anything now of what I did manage to hear. I listened for a very long time, thinking it could have been a weird answering machine message. I had to have been listening for at least 5 minutes then finally hung up. I know it sounds silly, but I was thinking it was ghosts.

originally posted by: beetee
a reply to: redhorse

Amazing story. Just wonderful. I can't help wondering if you have made any theories on this encounter yourself, through the years?

It would seem like she knew you, or someone like you, at one time. But at the same time that she was half expecting you not to remember her?

Very interesting.

Thank you for sharing it.

BT

My first guess is exactly what you said; she mistook me for someone else.

My second is that she was playing silly buggers, because it just seemed so stereotypical, the accent, how she interacted with me, everything. It was like something out of a movie.

My third guess is... Something more ethereal or mystical I guess. After the final encounter with her, I had a rather strange dream. Also, I have fairly recently found that I have some East Asian heritage from my biological father. When I found that out, I kept thinking of this encounter a great deal. So... I dunno. Sure was weird though.

a reply to: beetee

Oh, neat story!! Does sound like it was probably some sort of code, doesn't it? I wonder if the fellow that spoke to you found out anything. Of course, you'd never be told, if so! The phrasing is very odd, even for a code, too. Do you recall the time period? Anything in the news from that time that could correlate, maybe?

a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

Hehe. Well, I have thought a lot about what it might conceivably be about, and I guess I have nothing even after all these years.

If it was some kind of operation, my best guess is it was something rather low level, but yet potentially embarrasing should it be known.

Norway, being a NATO member with a border with Russia, Finland and Sweden, must from time to time be the grounds on which some "routine" intelligence operations take place. Or, that is my guess, anyway.

Maybe someone had defected, or was planning to defect, and was kept somewhere out of sight? Maybe even without the knowledge of the Norwegian government?

From time to time we have also been the host of secret negotiations between parts to various conflicts in both the Middle East and elsewhere.

There is also the possibility of some other intelligence organization staging through a "harmless" country, without asking beforehand. It has happened before.

But, in reality, it could be anything, and nobody would ever tell, even if it was ages ago.

I have always thought of the "children" as agents in a safe house somewhere. Which nobody was supposed to know even existed. Thus, when someone tried to call the house, there was frantic activity and some hasty calling. That's the scenario that seems most likely to me, anyway.

Murphy reared it's head, and things got momentarily very awkward for one unlucky diplomatic staffer somewhere...

If so, I bet there was numerous jokes on the poor womans expense...

That's my theory, anyway... Wild speculation, of course... Proof? Not so much.. :-)

BT

originally posted by: WUNK22
Glad to see your back, sorry about your loss......a reply to: KTemplar

Thank you, things have been real weird on top of it all. Besides seeing bright white lights, knocking, I'll make a new post soon.

a reply to: beetee

I can't blame you for wondering! The phrase itself is the most intriguing part for me. Using "children's house" seems to indicate possible children involved, but not necessarily! Good material for a spy story, at any rate!! That sort of thing, we'll never know, though. I know someone who came across some odd info online, that looked coded, and very suspicious, even to intel-trained people, but no one ever learned what that was about, either.

Sure its already been said (and I don't know shout the UK but...) as far as American English goes, we would never call a child in this day and age an orphan nor would we call the building an orphanage. OT has been maybe 75 years to a century since that term was used much as it has a rude or unsympathetic connotation. So...I don't know about children's HOUSE but the one and only term I cam think of that American English has used since is a children's HOME. Could that have been it? Ex: my spouse and I are looking to adopt but living in the countryside, there is no children's home anyrwhere near in which to inquire about the adoption process.

a reply to: AlexandrosTheGreat

I cannot 100% rule out that it was home instead of house, of course, but she said it twice and I think that s-sound would register. This was not a poor quality line, so the audio was crisp enough.

Besides, why should it be so dramatic that somebody had just tried to call this childrens home?

Doesn't make much sense to me.

The person was speaking with a British accent, but I guess she could have been from anywhere really. It was a generic kind of English, as one woud hear on, say, the BBC. So no regional markers that I could detect.

BT