186. Wrong Number

Nora has been texting with someone who accidentally messaged her years ago. Though she will never meet her texting buddy, the fact that they still talk is more than okay. 

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.

INTRO MUSIC 

There are a million ways to be scammed nowadays, and one of them is through wrong number phishing scams where someone will send you a text like “sorry I can’t make the meeting tomorrow” and then you’ll reply sorry wrong number and then they’ll reply and strike up a conversation and then 2,000 text messages later they have your social security number and they’ve drained your accounts into crypto or something like that.

And this is a bummer because, well, I don’t like when people get scammed but also because there are so few chances for real kismet anymore, and the phone used to be a place where this could happen.

But it does still happen to me because when I am overwhelmed or just procrastinating, I will do something like answer an unknown number. And it’s almost always the robot from the pharmacy telling me the prescription is ready and i have x days to come get it. But sometimes it isn’t! My phone number happens to have once belonged to an insurance company in the 80s. THeir office must have closed, but sometimes people who are mostly going through a dead old person’s stuff will call my number about a policy and I’ll have to say, well, funny story, but that number on your policy from the 80s was given to me at a kiosk in southdale mall in 2003, so you’re NOT calling an insurance company you are calling me, Nora McInerny, a stranger who is procrastinating. And they’ll say sorry and then we’ll chit chat a bit and I’ll never heard from them again.

But deep in the pandemic, I got a text from a Boston phone number 

Hey lady, it’s Erica, I got your number from Jen. We had happy hour last Saturday night. HIlariou, next time you have to join us. Mainly teacher gossip and Kel updated us on her tinder stories lol. It was a riot! If anything for the stories alone. All kidding aside, we’re glad you joined the faculty this year, we’re a fun group as you can probably see. Looking forward to next year. Keep my number so we can keep in touch over the break. 

Oops sorry i Meant to send to area code 617 in Boston. So sorry.

I replied oh my god I thought I joined a faculty!!! 

And then we just…kept texting for like a year.

Updates about her friend and the guys she was seeing. Checking in after school shootings because she’s a teacher and I…have kids in school and we’re both people. Happy St Patricks’ Day! Merry Christmas! Happy Humpday!

I have not invested in any crypto. We do not know each other’s names. We are just two people connected by time and space, and a wrong number.

OUTRO MUSIC

CREDITS