When you were a kid did you ever do the thing, “I think I hear my mother calling”? It was a useful gambit when some bullies were threatening or a neighbor asked for help weeding her garden or a girl gave me the fish-eye after a perfectly good joke.
Well, I discovered a variation on the theme, the other day, when a guy on the cozy side-porch at the retirement home tried downloading his sad family story while we mellowed out in the morning sun. At first, I was being polite and he took it as interest (or maybe he didn’t really care if I was interested…just needed to ventilate) as he recounted the ongoing sibling rivalry with a sister living four states away. Seems she never got over the fact that she was two years older than him and therefore wiser.
I had to remind myself that we all need to listen to others… as we would have them listen unto us. So, I listened. Then he moved onto his mother and then his brother. By then I had stopped nodding and ‘uh-huhing.’ I mean, there are professional people who get paid to listen to these kinds of tales-of-woe. That’s their job. Me, I’m a professional photographer. Very disciplined, using very selective shot selection for a particular audience or assignment. So, I have low tolerance for people who rattle on and on with…but I digress.
So, how to curtail my fellow resident’s screed? I couldn’t claim to hear my mother calling. I’m not a licensed psychic. Just then my cell phone buzzed in my hearing aid. An update from my bank. I got an idea. I put my hand to my ear and nodded, saying, “Okay, dear. sure.” I looked at my fellow porch-sitter/ and said, “It’s my daughter. My granddaughter wants to talk to me.”
The guy nodded and walked away, calling “to be continued,’ over his shoulder. Not if I can help it, I thought, as long as I got my cell phone ‘calling’ me when I need it.
Retired trainer, and writing instructor, Joe Novara lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Writings include novels, short stories, a memoir and various poems, plays, anthologies and articles. Read more at https://freefloatingstories.wordpress.com/
