SOURCE: "Sorry, Right Number" (Beyond Fantasy Fiction, November 1953) by Richard Matheson

DESCRIPTION: "Now she shuddered violently as the sounds began again. They couldn't possibly be human sounds, she knew, and yet there was something about them, some inflection, some almost identifiable arrangement of..." ("Sorry, Right Number" by Richard Matheson)

NOTES: Miss Elva Keene is an invalid who gets mysterious phone calls. First there is only silence, not even a dial tone. Later the caller says "hello!" repeatedly. She complains to the her nurse, Philips, and then to the phone company but the calls keep coming. Later the caller says "Where are you? I want to talk to you." Miss Finch, the operator, tells Elva she must be mistaken when they track down the line that the calls came from. The line is down, running into the cemetery. Miss Keene gets one last call: "Hello, Miss Elva. I'll be right over."

HISTORY: Matheson's inspiration is pretty obvious: H. P. Lovecraft's "The Statement of Randolph Carter" with its sepulcher voice saying, "Fool, Warren is dead!" This story appeared in H. L. Gold's Beyond Fantasy Fiction then was made into an episode of The Twilight Zone as "Night Call" (November 22, 1963). It starred Gladys Cooper as Elva Keene. The TV version goes into more depth about who is calling, Brian Douglas, Miss Keene's dead fiancee. The shows ends with her begging him to talk to her. Stephen King (1993) used the same title for a story about a women calling herself in the past.

Gladys Cooper