is anyone out there???

I've got your number.

I know it's early. I hope I didn't wake you. But I just got a phone call. At 4:14 am. This is never good. The library does not call at 4:14 am to tell you that the book you are waiting for is in. No, phone calls at 4:14 in the morning are always bad.

And knowing this, I still couldn't get myself to get out of bed and go downstairs to answer the phone. I stayed in bed for another half an hour going through all the possible scenarios:

• There has been a computer glitch and my girls have been evicted from their dorm rooms and they are sitting in the parking lot with all their belongings waiting. Homeless.

• The emergency brake on my car has disengaged and the car rolled down the hill and is now parked in someone's living room.

• My cat is on fire.

• Someone somewhere is dead. Or dying.

After a half an hour of imagining all the reasons for a phone call at 4:14 am, I finally decided that finding out who had called probably couldn't be worse than not knowing.

(This whole thing reminded me of that time when my husband was out of town and someone kept calling me and telling me they were locked in my basement and couldn't get out. It had me so freaked out I ended up calling my friend. She sent her husband and two sons to check out my basement. They had baseball bats.)

• Maybe someone was trapped in my friend's basement and she needed me to return the favor.

Anyway. I went downstairs and there it was. 4:14am. Missed call. From a number I don't know. Which leaves me in exactly the same situation I was before: There is still some unknown emergency out there.

(At least they didn't leave a message. Everyone knows that I don't know how to check the voice mail on my new phone.)

But I do have their number. And I'll think of a perfect time to call them back. Maybe 4:14 tomorrow morning.