Phone Call from a Dead Man

Stantz:  Hey, where do these stairs go?
Venkman:  They go up.
— from "Ghostbusters"

Wednesday night, about 9:45 according to my caller ID, I got a call from this particular phone number; it seemed kind of familiar, but was identified only as "wireless caller", and it was late, and I was in the middle of watching something, and I'd been irritated by marketing calls earlier, so I let the phone ring, figuring, as I am wont to do, that if it's important, whoever it is will leave a message, and if they don't, frak 'em. But the number was so familiar that I eventually picked it up anyway, by then, however, too late.

The familiarity of the number picked at me; I had reviewed my caller ID for another reason Thursday afternoon, and when I saw it go by, I couldn't help thinking, damn, why is that number so familiar?

So I let it steep in the back of my mind, so to speak, until it finally hit me.

My friend Skip died recently, about three months ago now. Skip had had a cell phone that he'd lost a couple of years ago. He finally got a new one last year, and all my current contact lists had the new number. I eventually found one with his old number, tho, and you guessed it, it was that number from Wednesday.

I was called Wednesday night by Skip's old phone.

I'm going to call the number later today, I'll update this then. I wonder if someone found the phone (two years later?) and was going thru the contact list, or...? (insert spooky "ooo-eee-ooo" sound here).