SideLines: It's dumb, but someone has to do it

Or do I?

One day last fall, I went to interview someone in their home. If I interview someone at an event, like Pumpkin Fest, I just scribble in my notebook. If I do a sit-down interview, I usually tape record it. You really can’t do that when you’re standing up because it’s too awkward holding a tape recorder while trying to balance a notebook and a camera and whatever else you may be carrying.

In any event, I finished the interview, turned off the tape recorder and thanked him.

As I was walking to my car, I heard a very faint woman’s voice.

Turning around, I looked to see if the man’s wife, who had left the house when I got there, taking with her a couple of rather mean-looking pit bulls, was speaking to me. I figured I’d thank her as well and wave goodbye to be polite.

But I didn’t see anyone.

I got in the car, backed up and took off. To my surprise, I could hear the woman’s voice again. It still sounded very far away and almost tinny. The strange thing was it sounded like she was having a conversation with someone, but not with me.

Thinking it might be the radio, I checked to see if I had accidentally turned it down when I meant to turn it off.

But that wasn’t the case. It also wasn’t a CD playing very faintly.

I had only gone a little way when I heard the woman’s voice again, only this time she was talking to someone – me!  Like the woman, my voice was very faint and also sounded tinny and far away.

Still, there was no mistaking it was me.

For the life of me, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. In a split second I couldn’t help thinking: Is something out of this world happening? Or was I just starting to lose it? I’ve heard about people who hear voices; you just never figure it will happen to you.

Trying to be more practical, I asked myself: Was someone playing some kind of joke on me? And how could they? There was no one else in the car, my cell phone was off and I don’t have a walkie talkie or anything like that.