... the pay phone rings. What do you do?

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

So - while I was walking to lunch this fine afternoon, I walked past a pay phone. I had always assumed that it didn't work because it no long had any buttons. Apparently, I was wrong.

As I stepped in front of the pay phone, it began to ring. A thousand stories unfold in in head at that very second - all based on one simple question: Do I answer it?

Well - needless to say - I am a totally boring person that does not want to be recruited by the CIA and so I didn't take the opportunity and answer the phone, but - what would you have done?

And - better yet - if you were making a movie or writing a story: what would have happened after you picked it up?

 

[der_kluge]

I would have answered it.

But, in writing, I'm very pragmatic, thus it would have just been a wrong number.

It's why I don't write fiction.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

We had a pay phone in my High School. I remember we assumed they were just there for show, but one day it rang.

When one of us picked up the phone, we answered with "Hello, this is Pizza Hut, how can we ruin your pizza today?"

Needless to say, they hung up. Wasn't much of a CIA plot...

 

[Henry]

After watching this film, I'll NEVER answer a pay phone that rings IN MY LIFE.

 

[JimAde]

This happened to me once, too (in a parking lot of an ice cream place in Lake Geneva, WI). At the time, my friend was running an excellent campaign that took place in Lake Geneva during the 1920's. In the game we ran a sham church that hid a speakeasy. The church was called the First United Church of the Kingdom of Evangelical Doohanism. My character always answered the phone in the church office and a very annoying, grating voice.

SO when the phone rang I picked it up and said "First United Church of Doohanism. Can I help you?" I then had a 5 minute conversation with a very confused teenage girl looking for "Tiffany". I stayed in character the whole time.

I'm convinced that to this day there is somebody living in Lake Geneva who thinks that church is real.

 

[Uzumaki]

I have answered a ringing pay phone, at the SD Comic-Con actually. But it was just some guy stuck in traffic out on Harbor Drive, whose wife was in the Convention Center and had called him from that number. BOOOORING

 

[Turanil]

I think that someone had the phone number of that pay phone, and was waiting in the vicinity for some dude to walk past that pay phone. Each time, they call the pay phone (all the while watching the place) and then try to hoax the person, or insult her, or whatever they think is fun.

Of course, if this is a movie, here would be the story:
-- Pay phone rings seemingly at random.
-- Mrs. Universe answers.
-- The call is by some child who is dying, has an accident, or what not, and is calling at random for help.
-- Of course Mrs. Universe is an altruistic and responsible person, so she rushes to the child's help.
-- The child is in fact a vampire.
-- Mrs. Universe never comes back.
-- Mr. Universe is extremely upset. He diecides to use his super-powers (with such a name, I assume he MUST have superpowers).
-- In doing so he forgets that he has been searched throughout the galaxy by the Graloziaxes, a race of evil aliens at PL8. And so a probe that had remained dormant for centuries in Earth's orbit eventually detects Mr. Universe, and sends a signal to the Graloziaxes.
-- The real story begins.

 

[reveal]

Need to find a pay phone in your area? This is pretty neat.

http://www.payphone-project.com/numbers/usamap.html

 

[sniffles]

I would not answer it. It's not for me. And if it is for me, I don't want to know! Heck, I don't even answer my phone at home 90% of the time.

If it was a movie or tv show, then on the other end of the line would be a mysterious child's voice saying, "Are you my mummy?". And then I'd look down and see that the phone wasn't even connected to any wiring... (always steal from the best)

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Blow it to pieces with an automatic rifle!