The Goldstein Family

It was three in the afternoon and I was putting my baby to sleep when the phone rang. It was a little girl asking for the Goldstein family. "Sorry," I said, "you've got the wrong number." But the phone didn't stop ringing. Each time it was the voice of a little girl. She was making one call after another, each time asking for the Goldstein family. My baby wouldn't stop crying. I started to lose my temper. I left the phone off the hook for about an hour, certain that this would discourage her. But as soon as I put the phone back on the hook, she called! I started to cry. After about the tenth call I told her that if she called one more time I would call the police. 6:30 p.m. The phone rang for about the 25th time. I picked it up, but remained silent. I could hear the same voice of a girl. What kind of parents would allow her to do this all afternoon! I demanded to speak to her mother. To my surprise, she called her mother to the phone. I told the mother what her little girl had been doing to me all afternoon. The mother assured me that this was the first phone call her daughter had made that day. "My daughter's teacher gave all the girls in the class the phone number of their new teaching assistant. The entire class of 30 girls was told to call the new assistant to find what time their class would be. The teacher must have given them the wrong number by mistake!"

Until about 9:00 p.m. the phone still rang from time to time: Each time, it was a little girl wanting to know what time class was! Some girls, even after hearing they had the wrong number, would anyway ask if I knew what time the class was! I would just laugh. It had turned into a joke now! I never would have thought that an entire class of girls, all with the same voice, was calling me!

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