The Gallerita!

A Funny Story

I decided to visit Mother this weekend. I arrived in Wichita Falls, and my surprise visit turned into somewhat of a surprise for me. Mother was not home and neither was Matthew. I called the house from my cell phone and left a message on the machine. I hooked up with Mother and Theresa at Walmart. Mother expressed great joy at seeing me. It was very heart-warming. Matthew, Mother and I went to 5 o'clock Mass, made dinner plans which consisted of Mother's left-overs from her lunch with Theresa earlier. When we got home from church, we divied up the left overs of chicken fried steak and french fries. Luckily for me and Mother, Matthew did not like the FF, so that was a 2-way split. Anyway, the three of us ate our fill from Mother's left overs and were very sated. After dinner, Matthew and I watched a movie; "National Treasure" with Nicholas Cage. Oh yeah, about the time we started the movie, the sirens sounded alerting us to a tornado warning in WF. We devised a plan...mother would grab the mattress off the twin bed in the guest room and we would take cover under it in the hallway. Mother also said we could grab the box springs if we deemed them necessary. The movie was good. The tornado did not get us. We had a pretty good night. We retired to our respective beds. At about 4am, I was awakened by Mother's answering machine; "Mother, Matthew are you there?" I thought: "why isn't Mother answering the phone?" I jumped out of bed, rushed to the kitchen phone and oh damn, I missed the caller. I decided it sounded like Theresa, so I called her home--no answer. I tried her cell phone. She answered. "Theresa? did you just call here?" She replied; "no, I was asleep!" So, I went into Mother's room. She was sitting up with her bedside lamp on. I said, play that message again. She did, and I decided it was Kathleen. So, I got my cell phone and dialed Kathleen's number. She answered and said she had not called either. I let her listen to the message and she could not pinpoint which one of us it was. I decided not to call Leah and Margaret. We would figure it out tomorrow. It was still bothering me this morning when I woke up. I was worried that there was news to be delivered, that we missed because I did not get to the kitchen phone fast enough. Then I thought; "you know, I did not hear the phone ringing.." Mother woke up at 4AM and decided to listen to the message that was flashing when she went to bed. Furthermore, the person leaving the message was I! Mother did not know that I had called Theresa, but why did she let me call Kathleen at 4am to find out if it was she who had left the message the day before? When I ponder on the way the day and night played out, I have chuckled many times.