As a kid, you would wonder what would happen if you pressed 911 on your house phone to see what would happen or know the voice at the end of the line. But at times, as a child, I had pressed the numbers and never “Talk.” As time went by,  we changed the house phone from a wireless to a non-wireless. You would ask why change to a “worse” phone, but it was only changed because my parents, being the overprotective people they are, wanted to be able to hear some of my sisters’ conversations from the other line. At those times, my sisters were about the same age I am now and I, well of course, was younger and curious. So my parents wanted to keep an eye on them with boys. Thinking of it now, it makes me laugh, but at the time I was scared of two things: having the police show up and getting in trouble with my parents.
Once in a while, when I finished playing with my sister or finished watching a show or movie, I would try to find something fun and new to do. Having an unsure maybe stupid plan, I passed by the phone and immediately ran to my sister and we both grinned at each other as if we already knew what we were thinking. My sister and I were close back then having barbies and boredom connecting us. We quickly ran, and we felt like we were on top of the world running with the speed of light. We ran to the back yard for two reasons. We did not want our mom to yell at us for playing with the phone or worse, figure out we were prank calling. I asked her if she wanted to prank call random strangers. Of course, she laughed as joyfully as a child and said yes. Being kids at that time, we did not have phones, nor knew people’s phone numbers, except family members and some friends. So when we usually prank called people we typed *67 415 and completely random numbers, in a way gave the experience a higher thrill. Most of the time we would get a message, basically saying the number did not exist or it was disconnected and other times we would get an answer. When we did, we smiled at each other, giggled, and were prepared. We always took turns and we either pretended we knew the person and messed with them or we pretended to be a service company, something random. We almost always pranked called, but after a while we became unfascinated and just stopped.
As months went by and I became curious looking at the phone and numbers 911, I tried something bad at the time, but find hilarious now. One night, my parents and siblings went out, except one of my brothers. I was not sure where they went at the time, but I was extremely bored. I roamed around the house and eventually became tired. Of course, my brother was in the living room watching the sports channel. I did not even dare to ask if we could watch something else, just because he was so into the game, plus he would have said no as usual. Knowing that, I walked to the kitchen, grabbed a snack here and there, and looked at the phone. With this phone, you were able to put any number and the number would call automatically. I was not able to fully reach the phone, so I grabbed a chair and stood on it with the phone in hand. I thought deeply about whether to call 911 or not. I was curious and just wanted to see what would happen. I thought of the pros and cons and eventually threw my thoughts aside and pressed 911.
At the moment I did not realize the the number would be called automatically. I heard the rings, opened my eyes widely, and slammed the phone down, so it would hang up. The phone did hang up, but I was still worried. I walked slowly and calmly back to the living room, so my brother would not suspect anything and for a couple of minutes I thought everything was fine. I knew I had done something wrong, so I squeezed myself in between the couches, to the point where I sunk in and was swallowed by the cushions. I was waiting for something to happen, not knowing what would happen.  A couple of minutes passed by and the doorbell rang and I knew that was not good. My brother looked at me suspiciously, then got up to open the door and saw two police officers. I was able to hear the conversation and heard the officers ask if there was a problem and then heard my brother respond, “No sir there is not.” They explained they received a call from this caller ID and at that moment my brother figured it out and was able to explain to the officers why they received it. The officers left and my brother closed the door, looked enraged, and yelled at me. I apologized, but still felt bad. I did not want him to tell my parents, because if they were to find out, I would get in more trouble and feel worse about the phone call. Luckily he did not tell.
I never called 911 for any foolish reason again. I felt different and scared for two reasons, having the police show up and for having my brother yell at me. It was a mistake and people make them daily. I realized to trust my thoughts and gut, instead of jumping ahead of myself and doing something foolish. Today I laugh, because I realize how curious people can be and because of it, we do crazy things.