Ring Ring

by Rohan Parekh

Ring Ring

“Mommy, I have a question.”

“Yes?” Mary asks her 8-year-old daughter.

Mary was just tucking her little angel into bed.

“Why aren’t there any ring ring jokes?” Her daughter asks.

“What do you mean?”

“Well there are knock knock jokes, right? So why not ring ring? Doors have doorbells.”

“Hm, that’s a good point.” Mary says.

“Wanna hear a ring ring joke?” Her daughter asks excitedly. “It works just like a knock knock joke.”

“Sure.”

“Ring ring.” Her daughter says.

“Who’s there?”

“Grandma.”

Mary hesitates before replying. Mary’s late mother was abusive towards her and her siblings.

After a few moments Mary does manage to reply, “Grandma who?”

“The grandma who’s standing right behind you.” Her daughter laughs.

Mary slowly turns around and comes face to face with her own mother. But her mother does not look human, her mother is now as hideous and demented on the outside as she was on the inside.

Mary recognizes the phone in her mother’s hand.

A sturdy old phone from the early 2000s, the very same phone Mary used to hit her mother on the head. A fatal blow. Mary had no choice, she was defending herself and her brother.

“Ring ring.” Grandma smiles before smashing Mary’s head with the phone.