Episode notes
In 1998, a young mother on a quiet rural route takes catalog orders from her kitchen table. The rule is always the same: take the address, then read it back slowly, so the caller can stop you if it's wrong.
In this original horror story, a woman looks back on the fall she worked overflow calls from home, taking orders at night while her two-year-old slept and her husband worked second shift. She bends the rules once, for a caller who says he can't wait on hold, and gives him her direct number. Weeks later, a man calls, asks her to read an address back to him slower, and hangs up without ordering. Then the phone starts ringing after nine, when the company says no calls are being sent to her. She puts it down to a crossed line. Out there, on a wet night, a crossed line could do almost anything.
A slow-burn, unsettling tale of a work-from-home job, a telephone in a farmhouse kitchen, and a caller who seems to be listening for something. No gore, no jump scares, just quiet dread that stays with you.
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All Harrowing Tales stories are original works of fiction.