Midnight calls and unknown callers

Last night 11.30pm - my husband and I are just falling asleep.Suddenly there is the shrill ringing of the telephone.Blurry eyed and very disoriented,I reach for the phone and try to see who was calling.My phone reads 'Unknown caller'.But I know only too well who it is.

You see this is something we have to live with.My husband co-ordinates a team of people in another country.....a country which is 10.5 hrs ahead central time.So when it is morning there it is the previous night here.As the folks there walk into work,we here are getting ready to go to bed.There are a few of us here,my husbands colleagues,who all live with this.And we wives just talk about it in passing....some are even proud that their men stayed up till 2am talking on the phone.There are others who see the humour in the whole situation.One of our friends often talks about how that call has,for all effective purposes substituted his wife.Taking that call in the last thing he does at night and many a time also the first thing he wakes up to in the morning.His poor wife!!

Most of us try not to make a big deal out of it and just try and accept it as a part of the job.....our husband's job,that is.But then there are times when it gets difficult.Many a nice,romantic moment has been spoiled thanks to the call.Of course,many nice,peaceful hours of sleep have also been lost,thanks to the call.Even dinners,picnics and other events that we try to organise....all have to adhere to the call.Hence,no one stays out beyond 9pm on weekdays and Sundays (it's already Monday morning there you see!!).

I was introduced to this whole state of affairs only recently.That was because I hadn't heard of such a thing till I got married and came to the US.I has taken me some time to get used to this.Initially I would mumble at the unearthly times these calls came but then my husband told me politely that there was nothing to be done about it.It was just the way things were.

The thing is my father works in the manufacturing sector and runs a factory.His hours are more or less predictable.Even though he stays late at work most of the time,he always gets a good night's sleep.A call at midnight could only mean something seriously wrong at the factory-a fire,an accident or some such thing.That is probably why it is all the more difficult for me to accept these midnight calls as a routine thing.I must give credit to my husband,though, for trying to maintain a somewhat predictable everyday schedule,considering that he works in the software industry.But these midnight calls are quite something else.

Anyway,like he says,there is little I can do about it.The only way to handle it is to learn not to jump every time the phone rings at midnight and the caller is unknown!!!