"Hello?" "Hello?" It's 2:00 A.M.

We've all had them.  The middle of the night stomach churning, heart stopping phone calls.

"Your Dad is in the emergency room",  "Grandma passed away",  "We have your brother in custody, he needs someone to bail him out".

One of the scariest and most disturbing such calls I ever experienced occurred one Friday night.  My son was spending the night at his friend's house.  He was around 14 years old.   The phone rang at 1:30 a.m.   I picked up the phone and a deep voice on the other end said: "We have Jimmy, we are going to kill him."   And then the phone went dead.

We immediately called the friend's house.  The friend's mother answered.  We asked her if Jimmy was there.  She said yes.   We asked her to please make sure.
She went into her son's room and verified that Jimmy was there sound asleep.

Those minutes before we knew our son was safe were frightening and torturous.

We eventually found out who made the "prank" call and he received a reprimand from a police officer.

Our family has several crises going on the moment.  Some are life and death situations.
So when our phone rang at 2:00 a.m. this morning and woke us out of a sound sleep, my mind was racing and my imagination was running wild.  And before my heart started pounding like it was going to burst out of my chest, I'm sure it stopped for a second or two.

When Ross picked up the phone, I heard him saying "Hello?" "Hello?"  No one answered and after a few seconds the connection was broken.  A few seconds later my cell phone started to ring.   I had it plugged in the charger in the den.  I jumped out of bed and ran to answer.   Same thing, no one seemed to be on the other end.   I checked the caller ID and saw that the call originated from my son Jimmy's phone.

I dialed the number but just got his voice mail.

This went on for  several more calls, alternating between the house phone and my cell phone.

After about the sixth time, I heard someone on the other end.   A tiny little voice.  I couldn't make out the words, but I thought I recognized the voice.  Yet again, though,  after a few seconds, the connection was broken.

The next time my cell phone rang, my daughter-in-law was on the other end.    She profusely apologized.   She told me that my two year old grandson was not feeling well and would not go to sleep.   She was letting him play with his father's phone.

I guess he just wanted to talk to Grandma!