The Phone Game
When I was a girl, there were no mobile phones or computers. In some neighbourhoods, most houses did not even have a telephone. Neighbours often let people use theirs and even took calls for those who lived nearby.
Those telephones were large and black. On the front was a rotary dial with the numbers zero to nine. To make a call, you put your finger in the hole for each number and turned the dial until it reached the stop.
Wrong numbers and crossed lines were common. There was no record of incoming calls, and the answering machine had not yet been invented. Those were different times.
This happened back then.
Alicia and Liliana were sisters, and first cousins of Patricia and Susana. The four girls were friends as well as cousins. They loved playing together. They dressed up as cooks one day, teachers the next, and nurses another. They could entertain themselves for hours without bothering anyone or quarrelling.
That was why, one day, their parents decided to go to the theatre together and leave the four girls playing in the flat.
Susy was the youngest, at eleven. Alicia, the oldest, was fourteen. Lily and Pato were twelve.
The flat was safe, and all the neighbours knew one another. The girls knew how to behave and had never caused any trouble, so they were excited about the new experience of being on their own for two or three hours.
They were happy and, in a way, felt grown-up.
They put aside their dolls and tried out the blusher and eyeshadow they found. Then they filed their nails and painted them with different colours of nail polish.
While they were busy with their manicures, Pato spotted the telephone directory and started looking for surnames that made her laugh. They found names such as Gallo, Gordo, Gavilán, Castillo and Rojo—words that also mean rooster, fat, hawk, castle and red. They could not stop laughing as they thought up jokes.
Alicia was enjoying herself most of all. Suddenly she said, “Let’s ring them and see what they say.”
They gathered around the telephone, sharing a conspiratorial smile.
They appointed Susy, the youngest, as their secretary. Her job was to write down neatly the names and numbers of the people they were going to prank.
“Mum will tell us off,” Liliana said miserably. “She’ll ground us until the end of the year.”
Before she could draw breath, Alicia retorted, “Mum won’t find out unless someone tells her. And I hope you’ll keep that big mouth of yours shut. Put your hand over your heart and swear you won’t tell her,” she added solemnly.
“Oh, leave me alone,” said Lily.
“No!” said Pato. “You have to swear you won’t say anything.”
“All right. I swear,” Lily whispered.
“Swear on Canela,” Pato insisted. “And don’t cross your fingers behind your back.”
“All right! I swear on Canela.” As she spoke, Lily held up her hands and glanced sadly at her cat, asleep on the armchair.
Once they had secured Lily’s solemn oath, they began making their calls. They asked Mr Gallo about his hens, offered Mr Gordo a diet and Mr Gavilán a cage. They suggested that Mr Castillo move into a shack. They asked Mrs Rojo what she planned to do now that blue was in fashion. On they went, helpless with laughter, carefully writing down their victims’ names and the insults they received from the innocent people they called.
The game was so much fun that even Lily joined in enthusiastically, suggesting new jokes.
Their telephone pastime was a great success. They had never heard such insults before, and their jaws ached from laughing.
As they drew up another list of victims and thought of things to say, the telephone rang.
Alicia, the oldest, answered, thinking their parents were calling to check on them.
“Hello? Hello?” she said calmly. Classical music played at the other end of the line. “Hello? Hello?” she repeated, but all she could hear was the sound of a distant violin.
She hung up, and they went back to planning their game.
When they were ready to start their next round of calls, they lifted the receiver. Instead of the familiar dial tone, they heard loud, heavy breathing.
“Hello?” Alicia repeated. She motioned to her cousins to be quiet and passed the receiver around so that they could hear the strange sound. Then it turned into a loud, unfamiliar laugh. It was a man’s voice.
“Hello!” Alicia shouted. There was a long silence at the other end. Then a deep, thick voice whispered, “I know you’re alone.”
Alicia put down the receiver and, terrified, told her sister and cousins what the man had said.
“He’s watching us,” Pato stammered.
Lily burst into tears. Susana, her face stricken with fear, began crying too.
“Turn off the light!” Alicia ordered. Pato hurried to follow her cousin’s clever suggestion. Now the younger girls cried even harder.
“Quiet! Please be quiet!” Pato shouted.
Alicia and Pato peered nervously out of the window, searching the neighbouring flats, while the younger girls clung to each other and cried.
Suddenly they heard the lift start. They ran to the door, pressed their ears against it and slid the bolt across. They heard a door open, followed by footsteps on the landing.
They struggled to hold their breath.
“The armchair,” Alicia whispered. Together, she and Pato pushed the heavy armchair against the door. But in the darkness, amid their panic and their younger sisters’ crying, they knocked over a lamp. Its bulbs shattered. They also hit a coffee table, sending the ornaments the lady of the house had collected over the years crashing down. They heard the water from a vase spill onto the carpet.
Still, they managed to move the armchair into place, and they felt safe.
The two cousins sat motionless on it, silent in the dark.
Canela meowed. As though she understood what was happening, the cat curled up in the arms of her owner, Lily.
They longed for their parents to come and rescue them. Never had the minutes seemed so long.
The black telephone was the only object still in its usual place. Not one of them dared to touch it.