Unwanted Calls

Written By: LJ


“Hello! Hello!” Skyy shouted into the receiver. “Hello!” he shouted yet again before lightly tapping the phone on the kitchen counter half a dozen times. “Hello! Is anyone there? I can’t hear you.” He stopped momentarily and listened. “Tell you what, even when you’re able to speak louder, you needn’t bother to call back,” he firmly suggested and hung up. He went back to the table to finish his supper.

“Who was it, Buddy?” Dusty inquired, having a pretty good idea of what was behind his fellow-Brat’s strange behaviour.

“Search me.” Skyy shrugged his shoulders and shoved the last forkful of mashed potatoes into his mouth.

The evening meal over and the dishes out of the way, Dennis and Dusty sat down to enjoy the last of the wine while Skyy spread books over his end of the table to do some last minute editing of the history paper he was submitting in the morning.

When the phone rang several minutes later, the two older men turned a deaf ear to it. After waiting a few moments, Skyy huffed and got up to answer it yet again since neither of his partners seemed inclined to do so.

“Hello; Taylor, Roberts and MacKay residence.” Skyy was silent all of ten seconds before stating, “Sorry, this is a recording. Please do not call again!” and then hanging up.

“This is a recording?” Dusty repeated, somewhat baffled but clearly amused.

“Another telemarketer,” Skyy muttered, figuring that was all the explanation needed as he went back to his books.

Next time the phone rang; Dusty took pity on Skyy and took the call. “Oh, okay….all right, I guess I can answer a questionnaire.”

Dennis shook his head and took off for his study in search of solace. He knew this could take some time. ‘Three calls in one evening,’ he thought. ‘They must be gearing up for an all-time high.’

Fifteen minutes passed and Dusty was still answering questions on a subject he couldn’t have cared less about. It didn’t improve his disposition to have Skyy sitting back and smirking at him.

By the time the receiver was back in place and Dusty was seated at the kitchen table, Skyy was in stitches. “Good grief, D, you’re gonna need lessons in how to get rid of those guys.”

Dusty glowered at his younger partner. “Oh yeah? And I suppose you’ve got some suggestions.”

“Of course,” Skyy taunted with a mischievous grin spreading across his face. “Depending on your mood, there are different ways of handling these kinds of calls.”

“All right, little buddy, I gotta admit you’ve peaked my curiosity.”

“Okay; if you’re in a bad mood, you’ll wanna get rid of them as quickly as possible, right?” Getting a nod in response, Skyy continued. “If you feel like having a bit of fun, you kinda tease the caller. You know, sorta brighten up his day or present him with a challenge.”

“Can you give me some examples, please?” Dusty requested, putting his elbows on the table and leaning forward. “I’m all ears.”

“They have to read their pitch-of-the-day off a card or something. They don’t even use their own name most the time; they just read off the one at the top of the card. So halfway through their spiel, you suddenly say ‘What did you say your name was?’ It throws the guy right off kilter, man, ‘cause he hasta stop and go back to the beginning to find out what name he had given you.”

“Hmm, I’ll have to remember that one.”

“When you’re in a hurry and just want to get off the phone, it becomes a little trickier. The majority of these callers refuse to accept ‘no’ for an answer. Sometimes you actually have to get dirty with them.” Skyy’s expression indicated this was serious business.

“Maybe for the next few calls, I’ll just watch you in action, Buddy. How’s that for a plan?”

“Works for me,” Skyy laughed and high-fived his fellow-Brat. “Oh, one more thing you’ll notice; some nights we get a higher volume of calls than others. For instance, it’s Thursday evening and telemarketers are working harder to reach their weekly quota. At least, that’s what I figure they’re doing. Mondays can also be hectic, possibly because they wanna get a jump on things.”

Warming up to the subject and seeing Dusty was all ears, Skyy carried on. “We get calls from all kinds of companies selling different types of insurance, water softeners, magazines, and other stuff we either have or don’t want. Then there are those groups asking for money or wanting you to do a survey, but you already know about that. And you gotta think fast to come up with snappy comebacks. Last week, a home improvement guy called to try and talk us into getting new doors and windows. I told him ‘Sorry, we don’t have any doors or windows in our cave. Try somebody else.’ I don’t think he saw the humour in it though.”

“There’s a lot more to this crap than I would have thought.” Dusty laughed at how his fellow-Brat seemed to have it all so well thought out.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“I’ll get it!” Skyy announced, laying his cards neatly on the table and jumping up from his seat. He grabbed up the phone, said ‘Hello’ and listened to the person on the other end. “Sorry wrong number. Better luck next time.” With that he hung up, checked the caller ID, hastily scribbled something on a notepad and sat back down.

Dennis and Dusty didn’t comment and they were more than pleased with not having to wait too long for their partner to finish up so they could get on with the card game in process.

Several minutes later the phone rang again and Skyy once more got up to answer. After listening for a moment or two, he made a suggestion. “Look, would you consider this? You give me your number and I’ll call you back tomorrow at supper time.” There was a brief pause. “Okay, have it your own way.”

After once again jotting something on his notepad, he took it and the cordless phone back to the table where he dropped down onto his chair and grinned mischievously. “Apparently they’re not allowed to give out their personal numbers. It’s Monday, so we’re probably in for a busy evening.”

“What makes you think that, Sport?” Dennis glanced up from his hand and returned the smile. “And just what have you been writing down after each of these calls.”

“I’m keeping a chart. I started it a few weeks back. I record the caller ID, the time and dates of the calls, and any information that identifies the caller. I easily picked up a pattern, and I know who calls the most.”

Skyy would have continued had the ringing of the phone not interrupted him. “Hello, Ghoul’s Mortuary. You stab them, we slab them.” His eyes lit up as he listened to the voice on the other end of the line. “Wow! You’re kidding, right?” Covering the mouthpiece with his hand, he gave his partners the exciting news. “I won a thousand dollars!”

He totally missed the sceptical looks Dennis and Dusty exchanged. “Oh, I see.” Skyy sounded as disappointed as he felt. That is until an alternative strategy came to mind. “Hey, I have a better idea. Instead of me sending you a hundred dollars and you then sending me the thousand, wouldn’t it save time if you just deducted the hundred at your end and sent me the balance of nine hundred?” He nodded in disgust when his question was answered, having already guessed what the response would be. “Yeah, I figured as much, ya cheapo!” he shouted as he ended the call.

“Couldn’t get them to go along with you, huh little buddy?” Dusty didn’t expect nor did he receive a reply to his rhetorical question.

“At least you didn’t fall for it, Sport. Many others have and been duped.” Dennis reached over and gave Skyy’s hand an encouraging squeeze.

“I thought the government came up with a new law to end all these unsolicited calls, Den, especially during the supper hour,” Dusty groused. He wasn’t too pleased with his younger partner being disappointed, even if it was for only a moment or two.

“Yes, but there are certain situations not inhibited by it,” Dennis replied as he reshuffled the deck of cards and began dealing out new hands.

“Ya mean it’s like Swiss cheese and full of holes; more commonly referred to as loop-holes, right?”

“Most would consider them such,” Dennis answered with a smile. “The law doesn’t apply to religious or charitable organizations. Nor does it apply to businesses you’ve had any dealings with for the past year; if the calls are being made from out of the country, which most are, then they not affected by the law.”

“Holy shit! What a farce!” Dusty was appalled at the lack of protection the general public had from what he termed ‘nuisance’ calls. “In other words, the only people who’d be breaking the law by calling us between roughly five and six o’clock in the evening would be our family members, friends and neighbours. Typical government crap,” he snorted.

“Hey, I’d rather be receiving the calls than making them,” Skyy spoke up.

“I imaging it can be a very trying career,” Dennis mused. “Not many would be able to do it, or probably want to do it. I think it would take a special talent, not to mention temperament, to enable a person to continuously make these calls over an eight hour shift five days a week. I definitely would not be capable of doing so. And I wouldn’t dare even suggest either of you try it.” His manner was half-serious and half-teasing, causing both his Brats to burst out laughing. “Now, are we going to finish up this game or not?”

“Finish it!” the two younger men answered in unison.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“We sure put in a good day’s work, Buddy,” Dusty commented as he placed a thick tomato slice on the piece of bread that was covered with generous coat of mayo. He added a lettuce leaf, cucumber slices and one very thinned-sliced piece of Spanish onion.

“I’ll say,” Skyy readily agreed. “Grass mowed, hedges trimmed, flower beds weeded, and whipper-snipping done. Den’s gonna be pleased.” He watched as his fellow-Brat added four pieces of bacon and two slices of cheese to each of the sandwiches he was making. Skyy wondered if he’d even be able to open his mouth wide enough to take a bite off one of them.

Dusty cut one of the sandwiches in half, put it on a plate and passed it across the counter to Skyy. “Don’t you dare answer that!” he ordered when the phone rang. “I’ll take care of it.” He grabbed up the receiver and immediately slammed it back down.

“What did ya do that for?” Skyy asked, somewhat wide-eyed. “That was never in my bag of tricks for handling phone calls, unwanted or not.”

“Cause it’s probably another telemarketer.”

“I don’t think so,” Skyy slowly shook his head. “We rarely get calls on a Saturday and besides, it’s only noon and much too early for them to be calling.”

Before Dusty could come back with a testy reply, the tune on his cell was heard. He gave Skyy a questioning look and pressed the ‘talk’ button. “Hello.” He grimaced, closed his eyes and groaned when he found himself on the end of a scathing reprimand. “I’m sorry, Den. No, I didn’t check the caller ID. I forgot. It won’t happen again.” He nodded as he listened to his older partner’s voice. “Okay, I’ll let Skyy know. Bye; see you later.”

Skyy was leaning on the counter with his chin resting in the palm of his hand. “Let me guess. That was Den you hung up on and he’s a little peeved, right?”

“That’s an understatement,” Dusty muttered. He accepted the glass of iced tea Skyy pushed towards him. “He called to let us know he’s going to be late; his publisher wants to discuss the new book some more.” He smiled; any repercussions for his mishandling of the phone call were forgotten. “Let’s finish eating lunch so we can shower and take care of whatever pops up. Are you in agreement?”

“As if there’d be any doubt.” Skyy laughed as he high-fived the other man. “And we better not be disturbed.”

It was nearing four o’clock when Dennis turned into the cul-du-sac that their home was located on. He wasn’t at all prepared for the sight that greeted him.

He parked as close to the house as possible, got out of his car and wove his way through the crowd gathered on the street. When he tried to get to his front veranda, the pathway was blocked by a uniformed officer. Frustrated and confused, Dennis was finally granted entry into his own home after showing proof that he really was the owner.

First person to greet him was Detective Barkowski. Fortunately, Dennis and the detective had a bit of a history; so hopefully, getting to the bottom of all this shouldn’t prove that much of a problem.

Dennis found his Brats sitting on the living room sofa. Skyy was hunched in one corner, his arms wrapped tightly around drawn-up knees and his wide-eyed stare indicative of the fear he was experiencing. Dusty was bend forward with his head in his hands, his body-language clearly demonstrating his agitation.

Skyy launched himself off the sofa and into Dennis’ arms. Dusty merely glanced up with an expression of pleading in his gray eyes.

Dennis steered Skyy back to the sofa and sat him down. He then took up the space between his two partners, placing an arm behind each of them. “Have a seat, Detective. I’m rather curious about all that’s been going on here in my absence.”

Barkowski rolled his eyes. He wondered if Professor Taylor was going to remain so laid-back once all the details were out in the open. Checking his notebook, he slowly started to explain the situation to the best of his understanding.

“From what information I have, Skyy received an unwanted call from someone trying to convince him to sign up for a new cell phone plan. Apparently this person has been calling repeatedly and doesn’t accept ‘no’ for an answer. So your partners concocted a scheme intended to frighten him off. Using pre-taped sound effects, they staged a fake break-in. Skyy pretended he was under attack and then hung up; leaving the caller to believe the line had been cut. The salesperson immediately called 911 to report said crime. Officers arrived minutes later to discover everything was fine. It was at this point that I was called in to determine if there were charges to be laid.”

Dennis felt Skyy shudder and tightened his arm around the young man’s shoulders, drawing him closer. At the same time, he maintained a soothing rubbing motion on Dusty’s back.

“And will you be charging my partners with anything?”

“Not this time,” the detective answered. His grim expression turned even more ferocious as he glared back and forth between the two culprits. “Mark my word, if something like this should ever happen again, you’ll both find yourselves behind bars. Is that understood?”

Two vigorously nodding heads answered, and Barkowski bit back a smile as he watched the young men press as close to their partner as humanly possible.

Skyy and Dusty both exhaled loud sighs of relief when Dennis got up to walk outside with the detective and bide him goodbye. Their relief was short lived when an extremely put-out Top returned and with a snap of his fingers, pointed them towards his study.

Dennis slowly followed his Brats while trying to comprehend all he’d been told. The whole thing seemed so preposterous. He sat down on the solid oak coffee table to face the two young miscreants sitting side by side on the leather couch.

Not a word was spoken as the older man contemplated how best to deal with this fiasco. Deciding on the direct approach, Dennis cleared his throat and quietly began his interrogation.

“Do either of you have any idea of how it felt to arrive home and discover it looking like a crime scene from some TV show? Aside from the crowd and several police officers surrounding the place, there was that blasted yellow crime scene tape cordoning off the property. It was frightening, not knowing if something had happened to one or both of you. That fear was quickly followed by a myriad of emotions, all of which left me with my stomach contents wanting to make an appearance. What exactly do you have to say for yourselves?” Dennis worked hard at keeping his temper in check.

Dusty grimaced and a small moan escaped his lips. “Ah well, it’s like this….Skyy has been keeping that chart he showed us last week, of all the unwanted phone calls we get. He noticed that Rogers Telecommunications calls the most. When we saw the number come up on the ID screen……you told us to always check the ID, Den.” Dusty thought this was the ideal time to remind his partner about that fact.

Dennis looked upward and silently prayed for strength. “Continue,” he demanded through clenched teeth.

“I saw this stunt on NCIS and thought it might work to get these guys off our backs. But I hope we didn’t scare anybody too badly. And I also hope the Rogers guy doesn’t quit his job or anything.” Dusty turned to look remorsefully at his fellow-Brat. “I’m so sorry for persuading you to go along with it, Buddy.”

“I don’t remember putting up much resistance, D. I not only went along with it, I actually added to the whole thing,” Skyy honestly admitted. He kept his head down to avoid meeting his Top’s eyes.

“Yeah, it seemed like a good idea at the time.” Dusty was as willing to accept all the blame as Skyy was willing to accept an equal share. Dusty chewed on his lip as he turned his gaze to Dennis. “It was a dumb move and it won’t happen again, Den. Honest!”

“Dusty is right, Den; it really won’t happen again. I swear.” For the first time since entering the study, Skyy looked directly at the older man. “We’ve earned whatever punishment you think fits the crime.” Skyy trusted his Top to always take care of things with loving fairness.

“I’m going to help you keep those promises, my loves. You are both going to be soundly spanked and then we’ll put the whole sordid affair behind us.” Dennis spoke softly, his voice completely devoid of irritation or recrimination. His Brats were fully aware of what they had done wrong and there was no need for him to keep harping on it.

“Skyy, corner please. Dusty, come here.”

Both young men knew when they’d been jointly involved in an activity that got them in trouble; they had to be present for each other’s discipline. Skyy stood up and walked over to the corner that he imagined had his name invisibly engraved on it. Dusty slowly got to his feet and moved over to stand beside the straight-backed chair Dennis had placed in the center of the room.

Dennis took Dusty’s hand in his and gave it a comforting squeeze. He yanked down his oldest Brat’s jeans and boxers in one swift move, before helping him settle across his lap. He immediately got to the task at hand and delivered a thorough spanking, all the while paying close attention to the young man’s body language and cries of pain and sorrow.

Picking up of the exact moment Dusty reached the point where the lesson would be remembered, Dennis landed one last spank to the lower part of each cheek and ended the spanking. He allowed Dusty to slide to his knees on the floor. Then he gently rubbed small circles on Dusty’s back and murmured words of assurance that all was forgiven. After waiting a couple of minutes for the heaving sobs to subside, Dennis gathered his still sniffling Brat unto his lap, taking care not to put any pressure on the very sore backside.

I-I’m sorry, and I promise it will never happen again. I-I didn’t mean to frighten you,” Dusty hitched, fresh tears filling his eyes.

“Sssh, my little grease-monkey; it’s over now and you’re going to be all right,” Dennis whispered and kissed Dusty’s sweat-soak hair.

When the younger man had calmed enough, Dennis stood them both up and carefully tugged up Dusty’s underwear. He held onto Dusty while the jeans were kicked off completely and then walked with him to the other empty corner. “I have to take care of Skyy now.” With a final hug, Dennis left him to tentatively massage his throbbing bottom. This was something he rarely if ever did; putting his chastened Brat in the corner, but he believed Dusty would rather be standing at this point in time, than sitting.

Dennis sat back down. He couldn’t help but smile a bit sadly when he noticed his youngest Brat pushing himself further into his corner. “Come over here, Skyy,” he softly summoned as he braced himself to repeat what he had done to Dusty.

Several long moments later, Dennis ended the second spanking he’d had to administer that afternoon and lifted a crying Brat unto his lap. Throughout the time it took for the cries to diminish, Dennis stroked Skyy’s back and whispered words of love and forgiveness. “Okay, little one, everything has been taken care of. All slates are wiped clean.”

Skyy nodded as he burrowed deeper into his Top’s embrace. A few more minutes ticked by and then after releasing a long, still somewhat tearful sigh, Skyy requested, “Can I see Dusty now?”

“Of course, sweetheart, he’s waiting for you.” Dennis knew as painful as the spankings were, it was hearing their fellow-Brat being spanked that hurt the most. The young men always needed time to reconnect and assure themselves that they were both all right.

“Okay, time’s up,” Dennis teased five minutes later. “I think we could all do with some cuddle time upstairs in our big bed. We’ll order in supper later when our stomachs start growling at us.” He smiled at the enthusiasm his suggestion received.

Before making his way to the master bedroom, Skyy made sure to disconnect all the phones. He didn’t care how many calls they missed.

The End