Waiting For Two Phones Calls by Mia Lowry

One day a long time ago, our family (Franciso, Lucia, Sergio & I) that lived in Glendale had a washing emergency. The dryer was broken. Franciso or Dad as I liked to call him, was a handy man and was calling around to find the necessary part for the dryer. Dad was waiting for this man to call him back with the price of this part. Dad was great at haggling over prices and could usually get the price of anything he felt was too much down by whatever amount he felt was needed.

At this time Dad, was also expecting a phone call from his primary care physician. He had been diagnosed with diabetes and was having issues controlling his blood sugar. He had had an appointment a day or two before the day of this incident.

Mom, Dad and I were sitting in the kitchen talking after our meal. Sergio was out. The phone rang and Mom went to pick it up. She told Dad it was the doctor's office calling him, but they were speaking in English. She told him he should ask for a Spanish speaking nurse to relay the Dr's message. Dad either ignored her (selective hearing, which I think he often suffered from) or he just did not hear her (during this time we thought he was going deaf too) and got to the phone.

As soon as he heard what the person on the other end said, he got upset and started to tell her, "No, it's too much money. No pay, no buy." He would get silent and listen to the caller then repeat what he said over and over again. At this point, Mom turned to me and said, "He did not hear me that it's the Dr's office. He thinks it is the man about the part." I laughed and Mom went over to Dad to tell him. He, like most of us do when on the phone, shook his hand at her to leave him alone.

So, there he was yelling about the price and Mom was yelling about the caller being his Dr's office. I joined in the yelling to assist Mom, but Dad ignored me too. It might have been because I could not stop laughing and was probably annoying him with my laughter.

After some time, Mom and I surmised the nurse on the other end went to get someone because Dad said something along the lines of: "Ay, se corto la lina." Then he began to holler, "Hello, Hello, hello" over and over again until someone returned. This time the nurse on the other end spoke Spanish. Dad was able to converse with her.

When he came back to the table, he was smiling and said, "The weirdest thing happened I was talking to the man about the part for the dryer then it switched over to my Dr's office without even ringing."

Mom and I exchanged a "yeah, right" look, but I was the only one bold enough to call him on the carpet. He was trying to save face with this one because I am sure he figured out what we were saying to him and why I was laughing. I told him I was on to him, but he ignored me and drank his coffee.