I'm making a lot of phone calls at work
right now, to update our senior service directory. It's hard to get
hold of the people I need to talk to during the holidays, as so many
people are out of the office.
Yesterday, I called a local branch of
the YWCA to check their info. The woman who answered the phone said
that the person I needed to talk to was out of the office till after
New Year's Day. She then said, “You could talk to Mary Magdalene at
the main office.”
“Pardon me? Mary Magdalene?”
“Yes. Mary Magdalene,” she repeated with supreme confidence. And she gave
me the number for the main office.
I knew that couldn't be the woman's
name, so with great trepidation, I called the main YWCA office and
asked for Mary Magdalene. The woman who answered reacted with obvious
disbelief, as if I were making a crank call. “Mary Magdalene?” I
could hear the suspicious sneer in her voice. I couldn't blame her.
If I'd gotten a call like this, I would have suspected that the
caller was trying to pull one over on me, too. She was probably
imagining a young teen holding the phone, surrounded by a group of
snickering children, hands clapped over their mouths to hide their
laughter. I had to draw myself up and put on my most professional yet
sympathetic voice. “Yes. I doubt that's her actual name, but that's
who I was told to ask for.” She hardly listened to my attempts to
salvage my self-respect.
“I think you mean Mary Gail Mullin.”
I'm sure she thought that I was an idiot. That call was probably her
laugh of the day, shared many times with her co-workers. I know it
was mine.
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