"Can I speak to Rebecca please?"

And said a voice, as though from yonder - "Can I speak to Rebecca please?"
It must've been around 4.45 or 5 a.m. this morning, and I was very asleep like a contented cat, sprawled on my bed, my comforter shielding me from the chill permeating from the window above my head and the swirling air from the fan. And then it happened.

My cell phone started chiming its sweet little "sparkles" ringtone. Try as much as I did to ignore it as a bell chiming in a far-far-away dream, I was up in about a couple seconds, and reached for my phone in all sleepy glory and gawked at it. The dial did not register initially, and when it did, the caller ID said "Call" and not a number. In my daze I must've thought it could be a call from my folks in India and without further ado, and in a groggy voice..."Hello!"

And said a voice, as though from yonder - "Can I speak to Rebecca please?"

'Oh sure, you can speak to Rebecca..once she gets out of my dreams and into reality!'
Confused as I was, I heard myself say to the voice on the other side of the line - "you've got the wrong number..now let me sleep". Instinctively, I rang off the phone, and went back to sleep or so I thought. And then, it happened. Again. Only, time had forwarded to about 5.40 a.m.

That same voice, again as though from yonder - "Can I speak to Rebecca please?"
And this time around, at the sound of the call, I really wondered if I was living a vivid dream, with people out to nail Rebecca on me for a past friendship that I didn't even know about. Then, out of the blue came this jolt of realization..nice try mon cher, nice try. And with a heavy heart (indeed!), I barked at the voice on the other end of the line - "there is no Rebecca here. Why don't you look when you dial?" The caller rang off with a profusion of apologies, but god bless their soul, they'd spoilt my sleep.

And that for a darned Rebecca that I don't even know about.

Footnote: Later today, I realized a possible explanation for those calls. My phone number ends with 8755, and from my friends, I have heard stories of how they thought they'd dialed me, but landed up on a girls phone. Apparently they'd try 8775 instead, and hence the confusion.