“Mystery Caller” — FWG Flash Fiction for 8/16/2025

Sometimes we get so excited we forget what day it is.

The prompt is:

https://pixabay.com/photos/building-fountain-city-travel-4437724

MYSTERY CALLER

The palace looked old, but in fact the Rococo-style building was new. The previous two-hundred-year-old Residence, which had served dozens of presidents, wasn’t ornate enough, apparently.

None of that concerned Jonas, though. He was focused on doing his boring job, which mainly involved answering phones and passing along messages, most of which were promptly ignored by the self-important appointees who populated the lower-level offices of the Presidential Palace.

So, when the last caller of his shift refused to give her name for the official log, Jonas gave his canned response.

“I’m sorry, Ma’am, but I cannot forward your call or even take a message without your name.”

Without missing a beat, the vaguely familiar voice said, “I have a message for you, Jonas.”

“Excuse me? Ma’am, I can’t take personal calls on this line.”

“This won’t take long. Forty-two-thirty, six o’clock.” Click.

“That was weird,” he thought, but then he checked the time and shrugged. Five-thirty. Quitting time.

All during the bus ride from downtown to his apartment building, Jonas couldn’t shake the thought that something interesting—maybe momentous—had just happened. The cryptic message felt like the opening of one of the true-crime thrillers he loved reading.

“Forty-two-thirty,” he mused. “Wait. That’s right across the hall from my apartment.”

That unit had been empty ever since the grisly murder that happened in there. His clandestine photos of the body and blood-streaked walls had gone viral among true-crime aficionados. In fact, the yellow crime scene tape had just come down a week ago. It couldn’t have been cleaned this soon, could it?

With his anticipation growing, he dropped his satchel in Forty-two-twenty-nine and stepped up to knock on the mystery door when Julia, the building super, threw it open…

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” came the shouts from all six of his friends.

THE END