If The Phone Rings in the Middle of the Night, Do You Answer It?

The phone rang at 2 a.m. today.

In the instant between the first ring and the second ring, my heart stopped as I imagined all the possible emergencies that could have caused someone to call us at that hour.

I answered, said, "Hello?" and of course it was apparently a wrong number because the other person immediately hung up. (I heard the click right after I said hello.)

I think it was more my speaking that woke Scott, not the ringing of the phone. Or possibly my jiggling the bed as I sat up and reached for the phone. After I hung up the phone (while grumbling under my breath), Scott said something along the lines of "Why did you answer it at 2 a.m.?"

"It could have an emergency with our parents!" I responded. "Or our siblings!"

"It's the only reason I could think of that someone would call at 2 a.m.!" I added.

One of the downfalls of being too cheap to pay extra for Caller ID, I guess.

With my chronic fatigue, I have no qualms about ignoring a ringing phone if I'm napping. But somehow, middle-of-the-night phone calls are still scary and carry an urgency that a ringing phone during daylight hours doesn't carry for me.

Is it just me?