Take a Message?

At an office like mine… you know everyone fears April 1st. After all, in a building full of tricksters, the biggest pranking day of the year means that no one is safe. Needless to say, we were all on high alert from the time we walked in this morning. (I’ll admit, if it hadn’t been such a crazy week, I would have planned something myself. As it was, I had to simply wait and see what others had planned. I was nervous, to say the least.)

Carefully, I made my way to my desk this morning, on the lookout for booby traps and hazards. I didn’t see anything particularly scary, and almost started to relax a little. When Alex came in and made his way to his own office after a quick good morning, I thought for sure that I was out of the woods.

Not too long after that, I was too busy to worry about anything other than the mountain of paperwork I had to get through by the end of the day. It was looking like one of those days.

Then the phone rang.

“Hi, is Mary in?”

Figuring that someone had accidentally dialed the wrong extension from the main line, I said that I was terribly sorry, that I believe they had the wrong office. Might I redirect them to the operator?

About half an hour later, the phone rang again.

“Hi. Mary?”

Nope. Let me get you to the operator.

After the third inquiry for Mary, however, I dialed the main operator myself. She apologized profusely, letting me know that they were having some trouble with crossed wires, and that they should have the problem resolved shortly. I would have been suspicious, but a few minutes later, a technician showed up in my office to fidget with my phone.

Not 5 minutes after he’d left, my desk phone rang again.

“Hi, this is John; I’m returning Mary’s call”

This went on all day long. By 5 o’clock, I was going out of my mind. I must have fielded 50 calls for Mary.

Just as I grabbed my coat and was heading for the door, my phone rang again. I considered letting it go to voicemail, but was worried that it might be a vendor. So I took a deep breath and answered. The chirpy voice on the other line caught me off guard.

“Hi! This is Mary… do you have any messages for me?”
As laughter erupted throughout all of my surrounding offices, I knew I’d been had.
Don’t worry, guys, I’ll get even.