Early Morning Phone Call
When the phone rings early in the morning, we usually jump to the conclusion it’s only going to be bad news. Parent in the emergency room, family member in some accident, something terrible. This morning I answered, expecting a call from my dad about my mom who’s in the nursing home after being in the hospital awhile, but instead, I hear some distant voice I can barely make out saying something like, “It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?” I say yeah, wondering if it’s a buddy of mine out in Chicago, voice gone scratchy with some accident.
He asks if I’ve heard about his trip? I say no, but I heard he’d bought a bike. My buddy just got one and he’d been talking about riding his Harley around Chicago and so I thought this is him, but his voice sounded wrong. “Yeah,” he says, “I’d been visiting my best friend here in Chicago who has stomach cancer and yeah, I had a couple drinks, but on the way home I had an accident.” I asked him who his friend was. Arnie, it sounded like, but not quite, I just think I wanted to twist it into my buddy’s friend. “Arnie? That what you said?”
In fact, about everything he said was muffled and mangled. He told me he was in a bad way. That I could believe. “So the cops gave me a breath test and I was over the limit so they took me in. I don’t have the money for bail so I was hoping you could help me out here.” This part came in loud and clear. Those little warning lights I’d been ignoring started blinking bright red. “Naw man, I don’t think so.”
“You can’t help your own family?” this guy asked.
“And what kin are we?” I asked back. At which point my brother or uncle or cousin hung up.
All I can figure is these creeps call 1000 people a day, hoping to get one poor senile old codger with too big a heart to turn down a relative in need. The folks who send money to Nigeria in hopes of actually receiving part of the million dollars the scammer is holding out as a carrot, well, I don’t have much sympathy for greedy people. But taking advantage of someone who is probably old and suffering dementia, who more than likely hasn’t got much savings but has a good heart, that’s more than criminal.
The truth is the weak and the poor are most likely to be prey to the beasts of the jungle. I dread the day when I get that call and wonder if a relative or a long forgotten friend really is in trouble and needs some help. It’s a mean world when compassion becomes a weakness.
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