The Phone Call

Well, here we are, about 24 hours before we will be leaving for the airport for our trip.  It's 4:20 a.m. and in my semi-conscious state, I notice the ASU fight song coming from the other side of the room.  Only it is not my alarm or part of my dream, but Erik's phone.  I tap Erik and say "Your phone is ringing".  His response, "No it's not."  

"Yes it is."  

"But why?" 

"I don't know why, but it is." 

I immediately thought of his parents who left for Switzerland 2 days ago.  Erik stumbles to his phone, disconnects it from his charger and uses his best squinchy face to try and figure out who's calling.  He says, "413".  

"That's your brother." 

"Ron?"

"Yeah." (Well, actually it's the wrong area code for a Pittsburgh cell phone, but I was pretty close.)

The phone has stopped ringing at this point and then there is a little more confusion as he tries to determine if whoever called left a message or not.   Turns out that it is Erik's parents: they missed their connecting flight in Philadelphia, flew a different airline to Munich, Germany where they caught a train to Zurich.  I can only assume that in Zurich they discovered their luggage had been lost and they proceeded to their destination city, Bern.   They tried to call Erik's brother Ron at Alessandra's mother's house, but they aren't there, they are in Venice.  Erik's dad promises to call back later.

I try to fall back asleep, but since my normal routine is to get up in 30 minutes anyway, I can't so I just try to lay quietly until 5 a.m. when I wake up the dogs.  (Who are also already wake anyway.)  It's now 5:35 a.m. -- I think I'll start figuring out how to pack our outfits for the wedding in our carry-on luggage.