Ben Elton - Blast From The Past

it's 2:15 a.m., you're in bed alone and the phone wakes you.

your eyes are wide and your body tense before it has completed so much as a single ring. and as you wake, in the tiny moment between sleep and consciousness, you know already that something is wrong.

only someone bad would ring at such an hour. or someone good with bad news, which could probably be worse.

you lie in the darkness and wait for the answering machine to kick in. your own voice sounds strange as it tells you that nobody is there but that a message can be left.

you feel your heart beat. you listen. and then you hear the voice in the world you least expect...

"that telephone was sounding a warning bell. something somewhere, was wrong. so much was obvious. particularly to a woman who lived alone, and Polly lived alone.

of course it might be no more wrong than a wrong number. something bad, but bad for someone else, something that would touch Polly's life only for a moment, utterly infuriate her and then be gone."