PLAYING THE MARKETEER

Don’t you hate telemarketing calls?

Me too.

Well, read on to see how my mom and I handled one the other day in this True Story I call PLAYING THE MARKETEER.

The other day my mom and I were having lunch when the home phone rang, with a number coming out of Colorado. The answering machine picked up, but whoever called hung up. We ignored it.

Almost immediately my cell phone rang, it was the same number. I answered, the person on the other side asked for William . . . This was not good, William was my father, who died in 2009. I asked who this was, then my mom pounced.

“If you can find him, please let me know,” She said. Yep, she went there.

There was dead silence on the other end. I thought the guy hung up, he didn’t. “Is he missing?” he asked.

My mom repeated herself. This guy seemed in shocked and asked again, “Is he missing?”

I asked him how he got this number. He didn’t answer for a few seconds, then said, “Give me a minute. I just found out something disturbing.”

“What?” My mom asked.

“William is missing?” He said/asked again.

“How did you get this number?” I asked again.

This is where he slipped. “It’s on the paper they give us.”

“This was never my dad’s number,” I repeated, “how did you get this number.”

“It’s on the list of numbers they give us to call,” he said. He was really rattled by what my mom said, more or less admitting what he was.

“Well, like I said, if you can find him, tell him to get in contact with me.” My mom said.

“I’m sorry . . .” The guy muttered than hung up.

Yeah, we played the telemarketer, and this guy seemed really rattled by my mom. No one said my dad was missing, but he took my mom’s comment to mean he was, and for some reason that bothered him.

In case you’re wondering, no, this guy couldn’t have been a friend or family member of my dad. If he was he would never have called him William. My dad only ever went by Bill, and hated to be called William.

 - Ace Masters