A Phone Call in a Graveyard

Lucid Lounge
1

I brought this up in chat already, but I figured that I’d bring it up here so others could read and give their opinions. I definitely know the obvious answers, but I wanna know if there might be something I missed.

Essentially, I went to the graveyard tonight (September 21) with a few friends. I’d never visited a graveyard, and I wanted to know what it looked like. After a few detours and remembering how we forgot flashlights, we eventually made it.

We’re definitely not troublemakers. In fact, when one of my friends started walking and accidentally stepped on one of the stones, she jumped back ashamed that she had committed such an act…

We started walking around the graveyard admiring the graves. We all agreed that it looked much scarier from in the car than out of it. We read a few graves, and I commented on how sad it was that a few people had died so young…

I got a phone call after about five minutes there. There was a man on the other line whose voice I did not recognize.

“Hello?” I called on my phone.

“Hello?” the man replied.

After about a ten second pause, I asked, “Who is this?”

There was another five or ten second pause before I was asked, “Is this Sean?”

“Yeah,” I reply. “Who is this?”

After another ten second pause, the man on the other line calls, “Hello?”

“Hello?” I repeat a few times. At this point, my hands are shaking. I hang up the phone before I can get another reply.

We walk around for another five or so minutes until we see a sign saying that no trespassers are allowed after hours. After hours means after sunset. We leave. (I’d like to note that there is something ridiculous about the rules, that they say that “unauthorized flowers” will be removed.)

I want to call the number back, so I look through the history and see:

Yeah. I’m a little weirded out by the conversation. What do you guys think about it?

2

Woah, strange.
Maybe a call from beneath the grave?
I believe in the supernatural and that seems like something a ghost could do.
That’s one way they have of communicating, using electronics to help them such as phones, TVs and speakers.

3

Some keeper or something trying to tell you to go away?

How did he get your number or how he knew your name, don’t ask me. Did someone stay at the car?

Or maybe it was someone from some company, for example your phone company, who tried to call you but couldn’t hear you too well? This is especially likely if that graveyard is out of town and/or in a high place.

4

If I were you I would’ve kept it on. It would’ve been eerie cool to me. Perhaps look at your recent calls on your phone and it might say the number that called you.

EDIT: Also you could call them back and asked them questions. If it shows their number of course.

5

The most parsimonious explanation is usually the most accurate:

Somebody was pulling a prank on you.

6

Draginvry - I thought about one of those online call things my friend was talking about where they would repeat a message over and over if you actually picked up the phone as opposed to let it go into your voicemail. It was my second and (to me) more plausible explanation.

Only, I only told three friends about going to a graveyard. Only one knew I was going for certain, and two of the three confirmed that they didn’t call me. Of course, they could be lying, but still. The one friend who knew I was going for certain would never do something like that, and it wasn’t even his voice. That, and I know all his friends, so he’d have to go to a complete stranger to pull of something like that…

It could have been a wrong number, too. Coincidence that someone else’s name is Sean and that person is who the other was looking for. Or it could have been one of the other two’s friends calling me. But to call within a ten minute time period is kinda lucky. Then again, not impossible.

I don’t know. Like I said, I know the two arguments, but I wanted to know if there was something I missed.

KT: The number shows up as restricted. I tried calling back, but couldn’t.

PL: That’s possible. But the graveyard was like right next to a street. I should have checked the bars… Then again, why would they call me at 10 at night?

Jojje: That was the other thought I had, but I’d like to think there are more… um… worldly explanations to it.

7

It’s pretty freaky, but I think it sounds like a wrong number. Someone may have been prank calling, sure, but people also get wrong number calls from strange individuals all the time. I remember having some guy call my house back when I was only 10. He asked for someone with my name (which is a fairly unusual one), but clearly he didn’t mean me. For whatever reason, I think it’s quite plausible that someone called trying to get hold of another Sean, and was just as confused as you when you didn’t sound as he expected you to. Why there were such long pauses between questions and answers, I don’t know. Perhaps he had really horrible phone etiquette. And many peoples’ contact info comes up as restricted, which is too bad, as that would have helped clarify some things.

Somewhere along the line I stopped believing in creepy happenings and ghosts communicating from beyond the grave. It was a cool little coincidence, though, considering where you were at the time. Let us know if you get any other unusual calls from someone asking for “Sean”. :smile:

8

It’s a bit spooky and coincidental, yes, but the explanation behind it is probably mundane. Spirits contacting you from THE OTHER SIDE! Ooga-booga-booga! :nuu: I also don’t seem to be effected by that same Graveyard Stigma that you are–having visited my grandmother’s grave few times in the past year, graveyards just seem completely normal to me. Maybe they’d be spookier at night, I don’t know. Plus, I think some old graveyards might have a creepier atmosphere than others. That particular graveyard just isn’t spooky at all.

I say that was a wrong number and a miscomunication–just at a nutty place and time.

9

Well, Sean. I suppose there’s only one way you can be sure: you’ll have to go back to the graveyard another day. :tongue:

10

yea i agree with Bruno.

11

Whoaa that’s pretty cool! And there is only one explanation… Wrong number! but still pretty cool//

12

You’d be surprised how many wrong numbers I’ve gotten that have asked for my name, or the name of an immediate family member.

It’s actually not that uncommon. Unless your name is Zamihajihabad. Or something unusual. But you already said your name was Sean.

13

Yeah. Occam’s razor is applicable, right? Inference to the best and simplest explanation.

14

As much as I’m a skeptic myself and believe this had to be a weird coincidence or something, I must point out statistics are not that friendly to this being called the “simplest” explanation. A prank is the simplest and more likely—and also the finest explanation, because it gives you a mystery to unfold. :yes:

[size=92]Gee, I should stop writing fiction. :eh:[/size]

15

Could it be that someone was trying to contact you and he didn’t have any reception? That’s what it sounds like to me, with all the repetitions of the word hello.

16

Brilliant idea. Perhaps you were holding the phone weird, with the speaking end out at an odd direction…Maybe the guy was just in a loud environment and couldn’t hear you, that happens to me quite often when I’m talking on my cell on the bus.