The impersonator

Once there were two men who were very good friends. They were on very good terms with each other in every way. Their wives were also good friends. Both the families had very good feelings for one another.

One day, one of the men said to the other, “Today is my wife’s birthday. She wishes to celebrate by having you and your wife come out to dinner with us. She wants to treat you.”

His friend replied, “I have no idea whether my wife has made any plans already. I will speak to her.”

The first man said, “What! It does not matter if she has any other appointments. She must come! After all, it is my wife’s birthday and it is her request that the four of us go out to dinner. We are such good friends!”

“All right,” said the second man.” I will call up my wife now and tell her, but I am not sure if she is at home at this moment. I think perhaps she is taking our youngest son to school.”

The man’s youngest son was thirteen years old. He had a knack for imitating his mother’s voice with such accuracy that people could never tell whether they were speaking to the mother or not. When the phone rang, the son answered it and pretended that he was his mother. The man had no idea that he was actually speaking to his son, so he proceeded to explain about the invitation. The wife-son readily agreed that it was an excellent idea to go out and celebrate their friend’s birthday. The husband mentioned what time they would be going. Then he asked, “But what will we do with our son?”

The mother-son exclaimed, “Oh, don’t worry about that. I will take care of all that! But we have to go out with them. After all, they are such good friends of ours.” The son was talking all about the friends’ good qualities when, in the middle of the conversation, he hung up the phone abruptly. His mother had come into the house looking for him and he did not want to get caught impersonating her.

The father was very startled, thinking that he had been disconnected. So he called his wife back. This time the wife herself answered the phone. When he asked her why they had been disconnected, she was puzzled. He repeated their conversation to her again, but she exclaimed that she was hearing all this for the first time.

She said, “I was supposed to take our son to school, but he was hiding from me. I searched the house and then I saw him fooling around outside, so I went out to get him. By that time he had come back and was hiding inside. When the phone rang, I came into the house only to discover that he had already answered it.”

The father then asked to speak to the son, but by that time he had run away. The father telephoned again after one hour and then an hour later, but still the son had not returned. The mother got worried because her son had not eaten dinner. She knew that their best friends wanted to take them out for dinner, but how could she go if the son did not come back?

Finally, in the early evening, after the father had come home, the son called. His mother hid her anger and frustration and asked him calmly, “Where are you?”

The son said, “If father forgives me, I will come home.”

The father said, “Tell him I forgive him. He just wanted to have joy by fooling me. We will leave the front door open for him and go out to the birthday dinner. When we come home, later tonight, we will talk about it. He should not worry. Tomorrow is a new dawn.”