Almost everyone who uses a cell phone has experienced receiving a “missed call” and not recognizing the number.
A normal reaction would be to wonder if it was something or someone interesting or important and hit the send button to call the number back. That rather routine situation happened to me last Saturday. I saw two missed calls that had come in late Friday night from a number with a 781 area code, and called it back as anyone else might.
Sticking with standard procedure, after hearing a female voice answer, “hello,” I said, “uh, yes, I received two calls from this number last night.”
What happened next immediately turned the situation from routine to weird and fascinating.
She quickly said in kind of an annoyed tone, “no you didn’t.”
At that moment, I had a couple of choices.
I could take issue with her apparent denial and say, “actually I did – I saw the number in missed calls and just hit send,” or I could just accept her response and move on.
I chose the latter and simply said, “OOOOkay” and hung up.
I looked up where “the 781” is and found out it’s in the Boston area. I thought, “hmmm, maybe that explains her shortness and tone” (nothing against Boston or Bostonians, just sayin’).
Anyway, such an outburst of raw, unadulterated human nature always gets my mind going, and I spent some time pondering what it would be like if people said “no you didn’t” – or maybe “no you don’t” – more often.
Sometimes it would be pretty cool.
Like if you got into a car accident and said, “I believe I’ve made a big mistake here,” to the responding law enforcement officer, and he or she reply, “no you didn’t.”
Wouldn’t it be nice to go to a clothing store, drop about five expensive items on the checkout counter and say, “I need to pay for these,” and have a woman say, “no you don’t.”
And wouldn’t it be nice to call the IRS about an overdue balance, tell a representative, “I think I neglected to pay an amount,” and hear “no you didn’t” as a reply?
Of course, the flip side is that “no you didn’t” or “no you don’t” could hurt, too, or at least be awkward to deal with.
Like if you went to a bank and said “I deposited $500 yesterday and I don’t see it in my account.” In that circumstance, you don’t want the teller to say, “no you didn’t.”
Or if you go to a restaurant, pay your bill at the cash register and say, “I left a cash tip” as you filled out your receipt. That would not be a good time to hear, “no you didn’t.”
And if you’re at a doctor’s office, you don’t want to say, “so I’m sure I have plenty of years left,” and hear your physician say, “no you don’t.”
I’ll never know why that female from Massachusetts elected to tell me I hadn’t received a call from a number I had clearly received a call from. I’m sure she had a good reason.
No she didn’t.
Doug Davison is a writer, photographer and newsroom assistant for the Houston Herald. Email: ddavison@houstonherald.com.