HEAVY BREATHING ON THE TELEPHONE

LUKY;
ONE DAY A FRIEND WAS TELLING ME SHE HAD RECEIVED AN ANONYMOUS TELEPHONE CALL THE NIGHT BEFORE.
  Living on her own on a farm, she had been watching a horror movie close to midnight when the phone rang and she lifted the receiver, mentally steeling herself for bad news - for what else would cause anyone to telephone her at this untimely hour?

  But no such news awaited her. Instead, a voice at the other end of the wire informed her that the speaker had some highly unacceptable intentions in her regard.
  "My first instinct was to yell at him, but I thought the better of it and simply put the phone down."
  I consider the anonymous caller's behaviour to be far removed from acceptable.

Unknown caller 
   I once worked with a woman who was receiving similar phone calls from an unknown source. All she would hear would be heavy breathing.
  She actually had to move house and have her phone number changed and unlisted.
  It cost her a lot of money and it took its toll of her nerves. Seeing her at work on mornings after some of those calls, I'd be shocked at their debilitating effects.
  "You feel so powerless and so afraid", was what she said.

Telephone call
  When I came home after meeting my friend, my housekeeper informed me that my married daughter had called from home during her lunch hour.
  I phoned her to find out if there was an emergency. She was mystified and said she hadn't tried to contact me.
  I went back to my housekeeper. "In that case it must have been one of your other daughters", she said. "The caller didn't say anything but there was so much noise in the background that I thought it came from a family with babies."
  We both shrugged and got on with our chores.

Is that you?
  Watching television that evening, the phone rang again. All I heard was a catarrhal breathing.
"Hello!" I repeated.
  I heard a little voice saying: "Hullo!" in answer. It sounded like my older granddaughter.
"Emma, is that you?" I asked, melting.
No reply beyond renewed catarrhal breathing.
"Hullo!" I called.
"Hullo!" I heard.
"Is it you, Mia? Surely not!"
  Mia, my other granddaughter was not yet two years old at the time.

  I was still holding on, wondering what was happening, when I heard my daughter's voice from far away.
"Mia! I told you you weren't allowed to pick up the phone!"
  The owner of the catarrhal breath was telling her something about 'Oma' while I kept calling out from my side of the wire.
 
  Then my daughter came on.
"Mom! Is that you? Did you phone us?"
"No I didn't. The phone rang but all I got was a string of hullos and a lot of heavy breathing."
  My daughter burst out laughing.
"I tried to phone you earlier on but you didn't answer. Mia must have pressed the recall button. I'd better place the phone on top of the cupboard in case she rings China next!"
  That was the explanation for the second anonymous phone call of the day and probably for the first one as well.

  As for my friend, she has considerably more chutzpah than most women I know, and forewarned is forearmed.
  The police set up a tap on her phone line. And she allowed her dogs the run of her home. If the anonymous caller had ventured to call, he would have found a warm reception awaiting him.