T is for Telephone - A to Z Writing Challenge topic

It was one of those old-fashioned telephones, actually, a reproduction with that retro look.  A thrift shop find for the grand sum of $8.50.  When it was plugged in, it worked.  That is, it worked on its own terms.  You could not place a call, you could only answer calls coming in.  One wouldn't think that too odd, except these calls were not from people that she knew and the calls started at the oddest hour - three o'clock in the morning.  "Isn't that the what is known as the witching hour?" she thought.  

*ring*

"Hello?"

"Hello.  Is Tommy there?"  

"No, I'm sorry there is no Tommy here."  

"This is number he gave me.  Tommy is my son.  Why isn't he there?"  

"I am afraid you must have the wrong number."  

Click.  The call would end.  

What an odd little phone.  The calls were always straight up three o'clock in the morning.  Who, in their right mind, is awake at that hour?  Even more creepy is the calls would take place even if the phone was plugged in or not.  That is when she was sure the calls were not of this realm. 

She thought perhaps it was akin to the party lines of her childhood.  Sometimes when you were going to make an outgoing call on your landline, there would already be a conversation taking place but no one else in the house was on the phone.  It was a telephone roulette of sorts, you never knew who was going to be on the line, even though it was a private landline. 

Maybe this was an other-world party line?  Was there another phone just like this one that existed in another dimension?  Had those lines been crossed?  Was the phone party-lining through a rip in time?   

*ring*

"Hello?"

"Hello, is Tommy there?" 


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