I really do love my husband. He’s a great guy who’s been with me since my high school days, and he’s always been supportive of my dreams and hobbies. He’s got a great sense of humor, and is wonderful with kids (if we have any someday). The one thing I haven’t been able to understand, much less tolerate, is his dad.
Don’t get me wrong! His family is…eccentric to say the least. They do normal family things on the weekends—except Saturday nights which is exclusively for my husband and his father. I’ve never been allowed to attend these gatherings of theirs, but I don’t question it since I respect my husbands space with his dad.
Lately, however, I have been getting phone calls.
They started as your normal phone calls. The typical father-in-law check ins.
“Hi Jenna, it’s Shaun. Just wanted to see how your day was. Tell Jeremy to call me when he gets a chance.”
Not every day. Just some days he would call. Last week though…I haven’t been able to shake the voicemail I received from him. Something wasn’t right with him.
“Jenna…oh Jennaaaaa” still echos in my ears along with the “Come out, come out, wherever you are.” Which was left on more than one voicemail.
“It’s just one of his pranks.” My husband told me
But something didn’t feel right.
The calls only became more frequent after that. The voicemails flooded my phone. If it wasn’t labored breathing he left behind, it was horrendous laughter. If it wasn’t a sing-songy reinvention of my name, it was asking me to answer his calls.
What really drew the line for me was this week.
I arrived home late from work one night, pulling into my driveway in the darkness, when my phone rang. This scared me within my own car because my phone was dead seconds before. Maybe I overlooked it? Maybe I misread the percentage of battery?
The phone was ringing. The chimes reverberated off the walls of my car. It was my father-in-law. I didn’t want to answer, so I slid the call to voicemail. I couldn’t even get out of the car before he had left behind a message, so I listened out of curiosity. Maybe it was an emergency?
“Jenna? Why won’t you get out of the car? Hm?” He had said in a whiny voice. “Why won’t you come inside? I’ve been waiting for you.”
The voicemail ended, leaving me in the car alone.
I frantically looked outside my car. Nobody was watching me, so I went ahead and stepped out so I could head inside. I only made it so far up the sidewalk to my house before I noticed the upstairs bedroom light was on, and a figure standing in the window. My husband was not home at the time, since it was Saturday and he was with his dad on these nights. But when I looked even closer I was horrified and confused.
The figure appeared to be my father-in-law.
Except his eyes were bulging and his smile was wide. I could see the whites of his eyes and his discolored teeth from where I was standing. So I did what any sane person would do, I reached for my phone to call the police, my husband, anyone.
But my phone was dead after all.
When I looked back at the man standing in my window his head tilted, keeping that wide and haunting smile. Slowly he raised his hand, and wiggled his fingers in a wave at me, before turning and walking away from the window. He never broke that smile, and seemed to float when he walked. The bedroom light clicked off shortly after he left my sight. This all had me scared beyond my mind, so I drove to my sisters house for the night.
But even then the voicemails didn’t stop…
“Why did you leave Jenna? We wanted to welcome you home!”
Delete.
“Come home Jenna. I promise we don’t bite.”
Delete.
“I know you’re hiding, Jenna. But I’ll always find you.”
Delete.
My phone rang consistently the entire night. With voicemail after voicemail being left by my father-in-law. The only time I ever touched my phone was to text my husband that I would need to speak with him in the morning.
And I did.
Once I had gathered the courage to head home, my husband was there waiting and wondering. I didn’t have any other explanation for my weird behavior or avoidance of his family the past few weeks, so I sat him down and explained everything to him.
“That doesn’t sound like my dad would do that.” He was persistent on that, and I don’t blame him, it’s his dad.
But there was no other way to convince him, so I pulled out my phone to play the audio messages for him.
There were no voicemails in my inbox. There were no missed calls in my call log.
“If you don’t want to come to family gatherings, that’s fine hun, but just say that next time. Okay?” And with that he got up from the table, and left.
I thought briefly for a moment that I was losing my mind, but every time I shut my eyes all I could see was that face. The face of my father-in-law. The haunting smile. The slow turn away from the window and into the rest of my house. I knew what I had seen.
I had to write this all down before I forgot, or before I chose to forget, or god forbid something happens to me. And even as I write this he is still calling.
The phone is ringing..and ringing..and ringing..