Jada always set aside Saturday mornings to do her weekly housecleaning. It was not like she had a lot of time during the week to take care of everyday business. She traveled a lot and Sundays were her day of rest.

The housecleaning consisted of doing the mundane task of vacuuming. It had to be done. She had a long haired cat which left it's fur everywhere. It could not be avoided.

She began her task of vacuuming the rug, but then noticed how the cat had left its white furry residue all over the couch. Well that would need to be vacuumed too.

This took her awhile. Most of the fur was on the back of the couch. She guessed old Fluffball liked perching on the back of the couch while she was away. It gave him a good view out the living room window.

When she finished up the back of the couch, she decided to get the underneath and in between the cushions. Her vacuum nozzle hit something hard. Jada lifted the cushion to get a closer look.

A cell phone was lying underneath the cushion. She wondered how it got there. She could not recall having had anyone over recently. Let alone, who the phone could belong to.

Jada shut the vacuum off and took a seat on the couch. She had to take a look at the phone. Maybe the names in the contact list would give her some clue as to who it belonged to.

After clicking on the contact list, she checked the names on the list. There were no names. She thought of how strange that was.

She thought maybe there were some text messages she could check. Maybe they would hold some clue. But, there were no messages. In fact there had not been any calls on this phone at all. It did have a phone number which meant it must be active.

She pondered over this phone for almost an hour. Jada just could not recall anyone having had visited her recently.

Suddenly the phone rang. She was not sure as to what she should do. She answered it.

“Hello”

“Hey, Jada...” the caller said. “I'm glad you are finally home. I have been looking all over for my cell phone. Have you seen it?”

“Um...I think I have.” She thought of how stupid a question that was, since he just called his own cell phone which she just answered.”

“Oh good! I will be right over to fetch it.” He hung up abruptly.

Next thing she knew her door bell was ringing. Jada answered it. The man standing at her door, she had never met before.

“Do I know you?” Jada asked.

“I'm here for my cell phone.”

“Oh right.” She handed the phone to him. “Can I ask...how did your cell phone get into my couch?”

“Oh...you just bought the couch two weeks ago right?”

“Yeah...”

“I almost bought that couch two weeks ago. I sat on it to try it out and my cell phone must have fallen out of my pocket. It was the only thing I could think of.”

“So why did it take you this long to find your phone?”

“I went to the furniture store and they told me they had sold the couch. I said bummer and I told them about my phone. They said they could not help me. I paid a lot of money for this phone.” He paused waving the phone at her. “I could not accept their answer. I waited for them to deliver the couch to your home.”

“But that was two weeks ago...” she reminded him.

“When I went to get out of my car to approach your door, you left.” He shifted his weight to his other leg.

“Well I do work.”

“Then I was not really sure the phone was in the couch. I wanted to call the number but I was afraid of making the battery run low.”

“Oh I see...” she interrupted him.

“I saw you home this morning so I thought this is my chance.”

Jada could not wait for him to take his phone and leave. He was making her nervous. She thought up an excuse to get him to go.

Jada looked in the direction of her kitchen. “Oh darn, I left something cooking on the stove. I have to go or I will burn it.”

Again he thanked her for his phone and finally he left.

She quickly closed the door behind him and locked the door. That was the strangest line anyone had ever used on her. She really did not believe one word of it. She decided to make sure she called a security alarm company first thing Monday morning. Jada did not want old Fluffball to have anymore visitors while she was away.

Copyright © August 7, 2010 by Linda Nelson