Sunday 31 July 2011

The pointless coincidence.

Many years ago whilst serving as an Apprentice in the local shipyard i became good friends with a fellow Apprentice named Ian Smith. After finishing our term as apprentices we went to work at the Naval Base in Plymouth, we shared a house and done all the usual "lad" stuff, he was without doubt my best mate.
After not seeing or speaking to Ian for some twenty years i was sitting at the end of the bar in my local, the phone was fixed to wall next to me, it rang, the land lord was busy and he motioned to me to answer.
Hello imperial tavern i answered.
The voice on the other end of the line said, is that you mark are you running a pub these days, no i said I'm on the only side of the bar i ever want to be, who is that ...? it's Ian, Ian Smith came the reply.
Now somewhat confused i asked, how did you know i would be here and where did you get the number?
I bumped into Neil (a mutual friend and colleague) and he passed your number onto me he replied.
But I'm not at home, I'm in the pub, what number did he give you?
4561 came the reply.
But my number is 4516 i answered.
I tried to explain to him that he had by some strange coincidence rang my local pub as i happened to be at the bar.
He refused to believe me and accused me of employing a strange avoidance technique and promptly hung up the phone. 
I have not heard from or seen him since.

4 comments:

  1. Wow what a coincidence that he rang u there. Stranger still if fate brought u together why did he hang up?
    Really enjoyed your memories, but so sad the way it turned out. Have you tried to contact him since? Is this the first time something strange has happened to you or are you one of those people who experiences these things from time to time.
    Great first piece, well done.

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  2. You know what they say about coincidences, the strange thing is that there isn't more of them. You should try contact him again via Neil or whatever. If u were such good friends before, chances are u will be again! Good luck with d blog! Will follow!

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  3. tattoo devil13 and 120 socks.
    thanks very much for the comments, will post again but will spend more time on the next one.

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