by Patty
My ethnicity is Hmong... keep that in mind as you read because it comes to play in my story. My incident takes place in Sacramento, California on 4/6/07 at 1 a.m. in my very own home.
On this night both of my daughters (a one-year and two-year-old) finally fell asleep around 11 p.m. My husband was messing on the Internet looking up poker chips, etc. I was doing the laundry and some last minute cleaning. It went from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. pretty quickly as I was kept busy folding and ironing. I went back into the laundry room and I was taking out the dry clothes, putting it into the laundry bucket, and loading the wet ones from the washer into the dryer when my home phone rang. I thought I let the answering machine pick it up, but I didn't want it to wake up my kids so I ran into my room, looked on the caller ID it said "Private," but for some reason I answered the phone anyway and I said "Hello?"
A very weak and sick but clear woman's voice answered back and asked me, "Patty, what are you doing?" I answered the call back and said, "Oh... I am doing the laundry and doing some last minute cleaning." The person said, "It is 1 o'clock in the morning. Why are you still up? (a pause)… and why are you cleaning?" All of a sudden I felt this cold chill and I felt scared and immediately responded, "Well, Cory is up messing on the Internet (because I don't want to give the impression that I am home alone, because I wasn't, just in case it might be someone I don't know) and I figured I finish it but continued suspiciously asked, "Who is this?" The weak sickly voice answered back in Hmong - my language - and said, "Patty, this is Daisey, stupid."
Right then and there I recognized the voice: Oh, it is only my sister, Daisey. I asked her why she was calling me so late. Was everything ok? She said in Hmong again in the same very sick voice, "I am at the hospital having my baby. It hurts so much." I was worried and then I realized that is the reason why this person sounds this way on the phone. Now Daisey was pregnant and is not due until 4/17/07. So I replied, "But you are not due until the 17th. The baby is a little over a week early?"
The phone conversation continued back and forth this way for a few more minutes, with me wanting to know what was wrong and Daisey told me that she was having some complications, that her doctor may have to do an emergency C-section. She couldn't tell me why or what was happening to the baby and why the doctor decided to just go with that option without letting her at least try to have the baby on her own. I asked her what hospital she was at and she told me Mercy General (the same hospital I had my kids at) and then I continued to ask her if she would like me to go and be there with her for support.
Now keep in mind that Daisey's voice still sounded weak and sickly. She said to me, "No, I will be ok. The nurse is coming… (a pause) …It is time to have my child. I will talk to you later." And then she hung up the phone. So I hung up the phone too, not thinking anything of it, but was still a little concerned. I knew my mother-in-law just got off work, so I called her at around 1:20 a.m. My mother-in-law works for Kaiser and a very big hospital as a medical transcriptioni st. She studies a lot, so I figured she would know what to tell me as to why Daisey's doctor wanted to give an emergency C-section. We talked for a while; to be more specific, we talked for another hour and half. My mother-in-law and I both hung up the phone after she assured me that my sister's doctor is the professional, and for me not to worry.
I was already done with my laundry, so I went into the computer room to tell my husband that it was late and that I was going to bed. I lay myself in bed and then I realized I should text message my sister's husband just to make sure the C-section went ok and my sister and the baby were ok and that the baby is healthy. I got no response back, but I just figured they are busy and the hospital did not allow them to keep their cell phones on because the wireless signals mess with the hospital machines.
I fell asleep. I woke up the next day to a "missed call" message on my cell phone and I received one text message from them. I was getting excited to hear that she had the baby… and this is where it gets weird.
The message read: "Huh?… Patty, what are you talking about? Daisey did not have the baby yet. She did not have a C-section." So I called them and my sister Daisey answered the phone. Confused, I asked her why she called me and told me she was in the hospital and was having complications and that her doctor was going to give her an emergency C-section. Daisey replied, "Patty, I am not sure who you talked to, but it was not me. My husband and I were both asleep last night by 10 p.m."
I was freaking out. I felt that cold chill again and felt like I was being watched and listened to. Immediately I told my Daisey that I would call her back. Now no one knows my home phone because we all have cell phones, so everyone has my cell phone saved on their cell phones instead. My home phone is only there more for business calls than personal. I started to panic and called up families, friends, anyone that I thought may of came across my home number and explained to them what had happen. Everyone told me, no they did not call me and explained to me what they were doing around that time, and it made sense why they couldn't have been the person to make that call.
Sounding crazy, I called my mother-in-law to make sure it wasn't a dream, that I was really talking to her for about an hour and half after talking to Daisey for 20 minutes. She assured me we were both talking lively to each other. Then she asked me something that made a lot of sense. She asked me when I was in the hospital, was I in the mood to be making phone calls? Was there even a phone in labor room? And I thought for a minute… that is right; when you are in labor and going through all those contraction pains, you wouldn't be thinking about calling someone. And if it was Daisey about to have a C-section, there would be a lot of prepping to do.
I was at a dead end. My heart was racing, and I felt cold and numb. Was someone trying to pull a trick on me? I called my home phone company to see if they knew or kept a record of where the call came from and that maybe someone was stalking me, but they don't trace any calls or have a record of any calls unless I request for the call to be traced before the call was made. I was still scared but I thought to myself, everyone probably thinks I am crazy. So I took that little 20 minute phone call conversation and stuck it in the back of my head.
The next day - and I don't know if this incident has anything to do with what happened the day before - but my husband, kids and I were on our way to my parent's house to get the last minute preparations done for Easter and to have lunch. I was talking on my cell phone with my Aunt Alice, and while in the middle of her talking, the phone line went quite. I thought maybe I may have lost her call and looked at my phone and nope, sure enough my cell phone still indicated that the line was still active. I put the phone back up to my ear and yelled "Hello? Hello?" and then all of a sudden I heard a loud, deathly scream, like someone was in a lot of pain… and then the line went quite again.
I continued to say, "Hello?" and all of a sudden… I heard my Aunt Alice talking, like she didn't even know the call may of dropped. I asked her if she heard anything and she said, "No," she was talking the whole time, telling me what Easter game she was bringing for the kids to play with. She did not hear anything. Then right there the cell phone call really did indeed drop.
I tried calling my aunt back, but I could not get through. I saw everyone the next day for Easter. I didn't want to seem any more crazy than I already made myself look, but I continued to ask everyone again, and again everyone gave the same answer. Left with no answer at a dead end, I let it go.
A week later, Daisey had her baby at that very same hospital. Till this day, I don't know who called. Who did I talk to for 20 minutes? How would they would have known my sister was pregnant? Why did they call? All I know is that my sister's doctor wasn't sure of a due date for her son. He kept telling her it might be the 13th or the 23rd and settled with the 17th of April. I think this phone call was from someone trying to tell me my sister was going to have her baby soon.
