One day, a woman named Shalini Awasthi was about to start cooking when her son came home from school.
How was your day friend?" he asked.
"Uh terrible," groaned the boy. "I have a split headache. We were playing football and one of the other boys kicked me in the head."
"It's terrible, dear," said his mother. "Do you want to put some ice on him?"
"No, it's fine," replied the boy. "I'm so tired. I think I'll just go upstairs and take a nap."
"Well, dinner will be ready in an hour," she said. "do not forget."
A few minutes later, the phone started ringing. On checking the caller ID, he realized that the call was coming from a private number.
"Hello? Awasthi residence," she said. "Shalini is speaking."
She could hear crying at the other end of the line. It sounded like it was a woman's voice.
"Hello, who's speaking?" Shalini asked.
"Please... please take it..." came the woman's voice at the other end.
Then suddenly the phone line died.
The voice sounded very familiar. She was convinced that this was the one she knew well. It was as if there was someone in his family. She just couldn't put her finger on who it was.
He immediately called his mother.
"Mom, did you call me crying?" He asked.
"No, not at all, dear," said his mother.
Then he called his sister.
"Ruchira, did you call me a minute ago?"
"No, it wasn't me," replied his sister.
Shalini spent the night to find out who had called her. She was so upset with the anonymous call that she forgot to cook dinner. He was sure that he recognized the voice. He called all his family members and all his friends, but all of them refused to call him earlier that day.
That night when she went to sleep, she was still thinking the same thing.
"Maybe it was just a wrong number," said her husband.
"No, that's the only problem," replied Shalini. "If it was the wrong number, I could forget about it. But it was the right number. I'm sure of it."
The next morning he found his son dead on his bed. He had died of brain hemorrhage. The kick he received during football practice caused an internal hemorrhage in his brain and he fell into a coma during the night and died.
The condition of the woman and her husband deteriorated. Neither of them could recover from the loss of their beloved son. As time passed, they separated and eventually got divorced. They packed their belongings, sold their house and went their separate ways.
Five years later, Shalini was sitting alone in her new home watching TV when she started thinking about her son. It was his death anniversary. He couldn't believe it had been 5 whole years.
Suddenly he felt something. She jumped out of her chair, went into the hallway and grabbed the phone.
He dialed the number of his old house and heard the sound of ringing and ringing.
Then, someone answered and he heard a familiar voice on the other end:
"Hello? Awasthi Niwas. Shalini is speaking."
She was speechless, tears running down her cheeks. She was so shocked that she could hardly speak.
"Hello, who's speaking?" said the voice at the other end.
Shalini took a deep breath. "Please... please take..." she said.
Then the phone line got messed up.
"Please take her to the hospital!" she screamed.
He tried the number repeatedly, but only got a recorded message saying the line is no longer in service.
