The Phone Rang in the Middle of My Shower

By Shelton Ranasinghe

High quality fun to read novel that will stop you from putting it down once you read the first few pages.

From the time Tony's phone started ringing when he was having a shower, it is a story of action pact continuum of incidents and surprises that you'll never expect even in your wildest imagination. Dan, Chris, Aini and her baby daughter Sara are the main characters who keep the unusual journey interesting.

You are rest assured the enjoyment of reading every bit of the novel and be able to share the feelings of the characters, throughout the suspense filled wonderful journey that they were forced to go through.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shelton Ranasinghe
• Release date: Jun 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9780989276337

Shelton Ranasinghe

Shelton Ranasinghe is an author and a retired professional engineer. The exposure he acquired living in five continents over a large part of his active working life combined with his interest on human behaviors, has given him a unique and intimate understanding of putting his thoughts into writing on philosophy and science fiction, combining both these streams.“Self A Delusion” - A good read to understand that the self could arise from deluded cognition.“Thinking Explored” - Cleverly explain how thinking process develops from day one.“Are We Being Fooled by our Brains” - Explore the complexity and cunning nature of the brain.“Our Psyche and Beliefs” - Is an idea of how our brains geared to adore beliefs.“Buddha Impetus to Primitive Psyche” - Refreshingly unforced and thought-provoking dissection of Buddhist doctoring.“Our extraterrestrial Neighbors” - Readers will perceive many complex philosophical overtones beyond the Sci-fi content.“The Phone Rang in the Middle of My Shower” - This Sci-fi explores afterlife, along many religious beliefs.“DoooD” - Excellent Sci-fi on Artificial Intelligence.Shelton’s email address: [e-mail]

Book preview

The Phone Rang in the Middle of My Shower

By: Shelton Ranasinghe

~~~

The phone started ringing in the middle of my shower.

Why does the phone always ring when I’m in the bathroom? When I was a teenager, I always jumped out of the bathroom, thinking those calls were from someone that I dreamt of. Those days are long gone. I have been a poor guesser of phone calls. Most have been from telemarketers, that I hate the most. They talk as they are more worried about my welfare than of their own survival depending on the calls they get through. My blood pressure peaks every time I hear them.

My ‘smart’ phone continued torturing me, with the new ring tone that I installed this morning. I wondered whether to take it or not. Suddenly I realized that it could be from Chris, to talk about our trip to Grand Canyon, tomorrow. I jumped out of the shower, with the soap covered body and grabbed the Smartie.

Helloooo!

Unbelievable! It was a telemarketer, trying to sell me a Prepaid discount offer for funeral service.

I was furious. Do they want to kick me out of this world? Good heavens! give me a break! I am only 32. I was talking to me.

Hope, I didn’t break the phone when I slammed it back!

I rushed back to the shower, shouting and swearing nice words in my head. The scene I saw added more fuel to the fire in me. When rushing out of the shower, I had accidentally shifted the shower curtain out of the bathtub and the bathroom has flooded from the still running water. After cleaning the mess, I was back under the shower, steaming from anger. Strangely, after a few minutes, some of the self-help stuff that I preach others but usually don’t practice myself, helped to calm me down to my normal sensors.

A few minutes later, while I was sipping a cup of tea and watching TV, I thought of phoning Dan as I didn’t hear from him, since the drinking session we had with the pretext of planning the trip, a week ago. I pressed his number hoping he wasn’t having a shower.

He answered the phone with his usual Hello! and What’s up?

Hello! I believe you’re all set for tomorrow, I asked.

Of course, I am. At what time will you pick me up?

Hey! I won’t be able to pick you up at 10 as planned. I have an important meeting at 10. I got to know about it only this morning. So sorry.

Can’t you skip it? His changed tone had a hint of disappointment.

Dan, you know how important it is to survive in the work place these days, right! This is one of those. I need to attend. Hope it will be over by 11 as the idiot who usually keeps dragging these meetings is not there as he is on vacation. I’ll be taking all my luggage with me and I will shoot to Chris’ place straight after; to pick Chris, Aini and the kid. I should be at your gate by 11.20.

OK. The earlier the better as I don’t want to miss my plans at Monument Valley. You know, getting those pictures with the sun set is my dream, Tony.

Don’t worry about that. You know about my driving skills; right!

That’s what worries me the most!

Hey. Trust me. I am an expert driver. Bye!

I needed to make sure Chris and his family would be ready by 11am or so. Chris's wife Aini is a habitually late person. I excuse her because of Sara, her 4-year-old cute daughter who calls me Uncle Tony. I hate when people are late. I rang Chris’s number as I thought they could be at home from work by then.

I knew someone picked up the phone. It’s Sara who picks up the phone usually and says Hello with her sweet voice. I said Hello! Following that I heard a loud noise. The noise was from the phone hitting the floor. Give it to me Sara, I heard Aini’s voice say. Some more tumbling noises followed.

Hello! answered Aini.

Hi! Aini this is Tony. How are you? Just called to check whether you made my favorite tiramisu for tomorrow’s trip?

No way Tony! We decided not to make tiramisu this time because of your diabetes problem.

Ah!

I am joking Tony; I know you will get a heart attack if I don’t.

Thank goodness, I was relieved.

Just a minute, Chris is on his way.

I heard the steps of Chris reaching to the phone after Aini asked Sara to call for dad.

Hey my friend, what’s up? What time is the kick off tomorrow? asked Chris.

I have to go to work at 10am and I will be at your place around 10.30 am. Is it OK for you? I had to give them an earlier time knowing they haven’t been punctual in the past. In the back of my mind I would be happy if they could make it by 11am.

Sure. Hey! Tony, can you wake us up? Chris joked to make me frantic.

Hey, Chris, no jokes; be ready by that time, OK? Dan is very keen to take his panoramic pictures at Monument Valley before sunset. He just reminded me. He will kill us if we don’t get there before sunset. So, we need to leave by that time. OK?

No problem sir; Sara wants to say hello to you.

Hello! Uncle Tony.

Hello, how are you? Did mommy tell you about the trip tomorrow? Are you excited?

Yes. Bye! Bye! She hung up the phone.

I took my GPS and loaded all the stopover addresses including the first stop at the Bert Lodge in Monument Valley. My SUV had just got the long overdue vacuuming, that it deserved. I took it to the nearby gas station to fill up the tank. I crossed the road from the gas station to Walgreens and bought some over-the-counter medicines, a tooth brush and some other things that I thought might be useful. As I was about to reach the cashier, I saw those lovely chocolates gleaming at me. That reminded me of Sara. I added some of those into my shopping bag and also a tiny fluffy doll with cute eyes for Sara. Sara has a special affection for me, while Chris and Aini always treated me like a family member. Chris was my roommate in college. Chris met Aini in graduate school and I have known them for over 12 years. I helped the parents of both parties come to common ground over their marriage, mending the friction they had due to Aini being a Muslim and Chris being a Christian. Aini and Chris are rational thinkers; lovey-dovey couple, very well matched and understanding each other. Dan and I have been friends from a very tender age. Dan’s parents and my parents have been very good friends and neighbors for a long time.

By the end of the day, before I opened the refrigerator for the fourth