Me: (answering the phone) Hello, Karissa speaking.
Guy calling on the phone: Hello, can I speak to your parent, please?
(Okay, so that’s a little odd but we are housesitting and I think perhaps he’s looking for the folks who actually live here and he thinks I’m their daughter. They don’t have a daughter but never mind that. He has a bit of a telemarketer vibe to him though so I try to get more information.)
Me: Who are you looking for?
Phone guy: (He stumbles over this a little, not wanting to tell me who he is or why he’s calling.) Oh, well, I’d just, I’d like to speak to your mother or your father. Could you get one your parents please?
(There is a long pause here as I think of what to say to him. My mother and father do not live with me. They live in a different city. It has been many years since I lived with my parents.)
Me: Um, I’m an adult.
Awkward, awkward pause.
I declined his offer to complete a survey.
Of course, Peter is in the kitchen with me while I’m having this conversation and cannot stop laughing when I tell him a telemarketer thought I was a child. I guess I do have a young voice but that’s still not something that’s happened to me in a long time. And as someone who’s had to call people for various jobs, you never ever assume that you are talking to an adult/child/man/woman/whatever.
Also, in phone news, yesterday I received a wrong number call from someone looking for “The Hawk.” He left a message on my phone, even though I clearly state my name and don’t use the words “The Hawk” at all.
So which is it? Do I sound like a child or do I sound like someone who might have the nickname “The Hawk”?
Karissa Reads Books 