Sorry, Wrong Number

“Is this the priest?,” a woman who has just called my cell phone asks.
I explained that I was not a priest and that she had the wrong number. She was very apologetic. I told her it has happened before and not to worry.
“Have a nice night,” I said, haning up.
Over the past two or three years, about a dozen people have called my cell phone looking for “Father.” After the first few times, I guessed that some priest and I have a very similar cell phone number.
The strange thing is that I used to also get calls on my home phone from people looking for a priest with a very similar last name. At least at first I thought it was “people.” After a while, I suspected it was the same older woman who was calling. Over the years, she sounded more confused.
Just before it stopped, we actually started having conversations that went something like this:
“Hello,” I would answer.
“Father (similar to my last name)?” she would ask.
“No this isn’t the Father. You have the wrong number ma’am,” I’d reply.
“Are you sure Father isn’t there?”
“No priest lives here ma’am. Our last names just sound alike.”
A couple of other times she called asking for her brother. Again, I’d tell her she had the wrong number. Sometimes she would engage me in a short conversation about her brother or some other family member she was looking for.
By this time I’d figured out that she was older and starting to get confused and since I’m a lot younger and sometimes get confused, I couldn’t be angry.

I didn’t think much about all this until a few weeks back. Sitting at work, my cell phone rang. Noticing it was an unfamiliar number, I was prepared to take another call for the second priest whose name I don’t know.
“Hello,” I said.
“Why did you just call my cell phone?,” a woman asks in an angry, accusatory tone.
“Who is this,” I asked.
“Never minds. Who are you and why did you call my phone?,” she replied.
Fortunately, my father taught me it is cowardly to get loud on the phone with someone you don’t know. I calmly explained that I didn’t call her number and wasn’t even on my phone at the time she said she received the call.
“I know you called my number,” she insisted. “Where did you get it from?”
When she threatened to get the police involved, I ended the conversation as politely as I could.
After hanging up, I checked my outgoing call history and did not see her number.

Let me know what you think.