Author Carol Lawrance
RING
She wakened once or twice in the early morning by the ring of the telephone. By the time, she roused herself awake and started to get up the ring had stopped. This was unsettling to her as an early dawn call usually spelled bad news.
The early morning ring started to happen frequently and then she thought that someone was harassing her. The person, whomever, seemed to know just when to hang up!
As the early morning routine ring continued, she finally spoke to a dear friend about it. The friend offered to stay over to see what was happening and to try to “catch the caller”. After several days, her friend did not hear any ring, however she was still getting up to answer the ring.
Her friend continued periodically to monitor the situation and never hearing calls prompted a discussion with the family doctor. The diagnosis was auditory hallucination, only in the early morning. It appeared the ring occurred when she was coming out of a deep sleep.
There was not a cure. Even knowing that the calls were not real did not stop her attempting to get up to answer the ring.
One day the phone rang early as usual. She did not rouse nor move to answer.
Ring, ring, ring…endlessly.