Eavesdropping

Standing at a bus stop in the middle of winter, waiting for a bus that may or may not turn up, is not my idea of fun. However, listening to the chatter of people around me, I soon forgot about the cold, as the whole queue became silent in order to eavesdrop on one man’s phone conversation…
          “Hello is Sally there? Thank… hello, yeah, it’s Ben. I think it’s you? How are you? Yeah I’m beautiful thanks. So do you want to arrange to meet up? You live by that church don’t you? I was going to say where all the piss-heads hang out, but no, by that lovely church. Yeah so I’ll see you then. I’m Ben, you’re Sally, remember that.”
          With that, he left Sally with the challenge of remembering her own name and began dialing another number.
          The sound of an automated voice could vaguely be heard from the other end of the phone line: “The number you have dialed has been barred.”
          Seemingly unperturbed by this news, as though used to hearing it, he simply hung up and tried a different number.
          “Hello, what a beautiful voice. You should be a doctor, ‘cos if I had a termical, terminal illness you could talk to me and I would feel so much better.”
          At this point the bus arrived and I was unable to hear how this second conversation transpired. Did he, I wonder, manage to arrange a second meeting at yet another Mecca for piss-heads? Or would her number be added to his list of those that end in an all too familiar message: “The number you have dialed has been barred.”

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