A Suspicion of Phone Booths

That's what a cluster, the plural description, should be for the above side-road communicative convenience boxes.




Let me explain.



A while ago, late one night, Hubbie and I, rather than drive out to eat, realised we were much too lazy to go anywhere and instead decided on picking up some pizza to eat-in at home.

Simple. Pizza. Cheesy, saucy, yummy goodness.

Anyway, I had ordered, but had walked back to the car to talk to Hubbie while we waited for the pizza.



As we chatted, Hubbie had noticed an expensive looking car parked near us, and also the man who seemed to own the car. He made comment on the car (as men do), but we sort of ignored it.

Until expensive-car-man (EC man) walked over to the nearby phonebooth positioned on the footpath, just outside the pizza shop.

And made a call.

We didn't really think much of it, until the point that EC man noticed that Hubbie had noticed HIM. EC man sort of looked over a few times, suspiciously, and it was once we started to make more comments about the man, that I made the awesome realisation that something shifty was going on. In fact, something shifty was ALWAYS going on, when someone used a phone booth.

EC man was dressed well, was driving a very expensive car, and no sorry, did not park his car to order pizza like us. These days everyone has a mobile, and even if EC man's mobile battery had gone flat, I highly doubt that he with the posh car did not have possession of a in-car charger.

Think about it: EVERYONE has a mobile, really everyone. He clearly did not pull over to make a phone call on his mobile, which would not have alerted us in the slightest, to see a man talking on his mobile in his car. Nowadays, kids have mobiles, hanging off lanyards around their necks, and older people, grandparents, retirees, are getting in on the act. In fear of sounding politically incorrect, EVEN poor people have mobiles. I worked in an expensive but rundown inner-city suburb a few years back, which abounded in poor people, and these poor people, had dogs following them, AND a mobile, albeit most likely pre-paid, but still, A MOBILE!

So how is it that EC man doesn't have one?

And here's the clincher..... he does. He just didn't wanna use it. Usage of his mobile, while involved in "funny" business, may at some stage work against him to provide evidence of his guilt in the matter. His partner would come across a compromising message, or get a phone call that links him to shady dealings. The phone booth allows him the anonymity to make a call and not have it traced back to him.

Now I'm starting to sound like my parents. Look, he COULD be partaking in some other unsightly business, who knows. What I know for sure is that in this day and age, with the abundance of mobile phones, accessibility to them regardless of socio-economic background, how can a well-dressed man driving a posh car not have a mobile phone? His use of the phone booth can only mean one of a few scenarios, with the general feeling being that there is definitely some funny business going on, WHENEVER a phone booth is involved.....



Anyway, the conclusion? The man ended up finishing his phone call, and he promptly left.

Leaving me wondering how many more phone booths were also in a cloud of suspicion across the city.....