Phone Call from a Friend

I have an old friend. I’ll call him Don.

I have known Don since 1969. Outside of my family, I have known no one else as long as I have know Don. We may not get in touch very often – maybe once or twice a year, but he is as true blue and dependable as you could ever ask for in a friend. Fay has met him a few times, and the two of them get along very well.

After my Father died, Don came to the funeral. He joined us for the lunch at my Father’s favorite restaurant, and came over to the house. Don is a locksmith. My Father had a safe – the combination for which he never bothered to tell anyone. I asked Don how much it would cost for him to punch the safe. He did it for free. That’s the kind of guy he is.

Friday, Fay called me at work to tell me something funny. We had a chuckle, but, as cell calls usually go, the call ended with each of us saying, “Can you here me now?” I did not have a chance to tell Fay that I was going into a meeting and would be unavailable for a while.

About twenty minutes later, after the meeting started, Fay calls me. I know it is Fay because I have her programmed so I can voice activate a call to her, so when she calls me my phone says “Fay Home” or “Fay Cell” before it rings. I figured Fay just wanted to finish the uncompleted call from earlier, so I reject the call. A few minutes later, Fay calls me again. I do the same thing. A few minutes later she calls again. I figure that if Fay tries to call me three times in ten minutes, it is important. I leave the meeting and take her call.

“You’d better call Don.” Fay had just seen the news of the explosion in San Bruno. Don lives in San Bruno. Fay had looked up Don’s address and saw that it was not far from the explosion.

As soon as the meeting was over I try Don’s cell phone – it went straight to voice-mail, as though it were off. I try his home phone, but there is no answer. I feel pretty anxious at this point. I then call Fay and ask her to look up the phone number of where he works. She gives it to me.

“Hi, I’m trying to get a hold of Don.”

“He isn’t usually here now because he works in the field.”

“I’m an old friend of his and I’m just trying to make sure he is OK after the explosion.”

“Yeah, he is fine. He came to work today.”

“Thank you. I just wanted to be sure he was OK. Could you tell him that Matt called?”

About an hour later, Don called me. His voice never sounded so go to me as it did that moment.