The call

I know alot of people in this day and age do not have house phones anymore and to be honest I am surprised we still do. Today made me realize why indeed we still have ours. Let me set the mood here for you with a few background notes. 1) I rarely ever answer the house phone because 99.999999999% of the time it is someone who wants to sell me something or a senator wanting a vote. As a FYI senator, if you call me soliciting a vote, that's a strike and if you get three you get no vote. Choose your call count wisely. 2) It is easier to answer my cell phone because it is usually by my side, whereas the house phone is always on the opposite side of the house when it rings. 3) It’s easier to let it ring then waste my time answering it.

I'm sitting in the backroom watching airplane repo, oooooo yeaaaa love that show, when the house phone rings. If Mark wouldn't have been sitting in the front room I wouldn't have answered it, but I didn't want him getting mad that I didn't answer, so I got up and answered. That is when things got interesting. The guy on the other line promptly asks me what my name is before I even talk. Being the sly person I am I thought about telling him my name was shadow but I went with a lesser version of my name and told him I was Chris. He asked me if I knew a guy named Mark, and at that time I figured it was one of Marks friends so I started walking the phone into Mark. Yes I know a Mark he is my dad. This guy, better known as Don said, well does he go by "Mark Ranger Danger?" It was at this moment I paused and thought to myself, ummm are we talking about the same Mark right now? I do not recall any of these nicknames coming up in conversations with him in the last 15 years that he has been my step-dad.  I asked Don what is this Mark person’s last name that you are looking for? He promptly responded Pelphrey. My head was really spinning at this time and looking back I do not know why I didn't just give Mark the phone. It is like I was screening the call for him or something. After a few more minutes he let me know that the Mark he was looking for was a guy that used to be in the military. Yatzee, you got the wrong Mark, I know for sure Mark my step-dad was never in the military. I told Don, you have the wrong Mark Pelphrey and figured the conversation would end there. Wrongo!!!

At this time in the conversation, Don starts to tear up. In my mind I’m like I aint got time for this; I’m missing my favorite show. Am I BEING PUNKED!!!!! You got me whoever set me up. Then Don said dude Mark and I’s good friend just got killed in Afghanistan and I am trying to get ahold of Mark to let him know. Well that escalated quickly I thought. And this is why I do not answer the house phone. Well Don I said are you sure of how to spell Marks last name because there are a few different spellings. He had no clue other than it had a P in it. Well that narrows it down. He said do you know any other Mark Pelphrey’s? I was like nope but there are a lot of people in Columbus with the Pelphrey last name.

This difficult problem that I was having with Don was he was asking me for information the whole time about myself that I wasn't comfortable with giving out which made me even more skeptical. Like where do I live, what’s my last name, how old am I. Just very awkward questions that made me more and more skeptical and he seemed to get agitated when I gave him very vague answers like Ohio, Pelphrey, and college age.

Anyways he filled me in that he called #411 to get the operator to connect him with a Mark Pelphrey and they gave him our number. He filled me in a little more on himself telling me that he used to be a para something that worked behind enemy lines and that that is what his friend died doing. I started to trust this guy Don a little more and started feeling bad. He said well thanks for the help man I will quit bothering you and thanks for everything. I thought for a second and told Don to hold on a second. I said how about I go through the white pages and look and see if I could find another Mark Pelphrey in Columbus. Again since we live in the modern age we do not own a phone book so I turned to the internet and did a quick little search of a few sites and found a few Mark Pelphrey’s other than the one living here. He was so grateful that someone was helping him as he said that he just needed someone to talk to right now. As I am still looking and gathering “Mark Pelphrey numbers and evidence” he said man I pay my bills on time and help people in need but never has anyone done something like this for me, can I talk to your parents? Are your parents’ home?

Not wanting to get Mark involved as he was wondering why I was still on the phone with this guy anyways I just told Don my parents were at church. Then he proceeded to say I am going to hang up and call back but please do not answer the phone I want to leave a message for your parents. He hung up, called, left a message, and then promptly called back. Of the information I gather on various Mark Pelphrey’s in Columbus, there was one that was really drawing me to it for some reason. In total there were five other Mark Pelphrey’s, but this one kept standing out. I told Don, call this number 632-965-0654 and let me know what happens. (I changed the number for privacy reasons)

Unbeknownst to Don, I did some more digging just in case this was the wrong guy. I typed “Mark Pelphrey Columbus Ohio” into Google and the first thing that popped up was Nancy Pelphrey. I was like Google how do you get Nancy out of Mark you stupid computer.  I exited out and went to the white pages and typed in “Mark Pelphrey Columbus Ohio” and there again amongst the Mark Pelphrey’s pops up a Nancy Pelphrey. Before I exit out, there is another phone call on the house phone and sure enough its Don. He said Dude no one answered but I just remembered something; Mark is married to a Nancy. I'm like dude are you kidding me right now! When I get back to computer and click on Nancy’s name, the number that I gave him earlier is the same exact number under Nancy’s name.

I sent Don on his way after thanking him for getting me involved. He thanked me up and down then we split ways. I keep going back over the events that had occurred that day. Don kept asking me through our whole conversation why are you doing this for me, and to be honest I didn't know why. I still don’t, but I think a lot of it has to do because of Bob Goff. I follow him on Twitter and he is always saying, just love people. I knew Don needed a little helping hand so I sent some brotherly love his way. Will I ever speak to Don again or know how things turned out? I doubt it, but it is amazing what a little Love Does.