THE CALL, Part One

My family and I were eating dinner on Thursday, February 21, 2008. The phone rang. We don't typically answer the phone during dinner, but we might check the caller ID to make sure it's not a call from the church or from a family member. Most of the time we don't even do that, but Karen happened to be getting something from the refrigerator and glanced at the caller ID on her way back to the table.

"It's from California."

My kids have been trained about out-of-state and unidentified callers. "Must be a sales call" they chirped in unison. Our attention turned back to our food as the phone played out its five rings before the voice mail took control. We soon forgot that the phone had even rung.

That evening was a little different than a typical school night. There was ice and snow predicted for the next day, and it was doubtful that schools would be open. While my wife went to a meeting at church, my daughter and I decided to make it a Movie Night. I had mentioned to her earlier in the day that I'd never seen Disney's Tarzan all the way through, so she thought it was important to fill this gap in my cinema experience right away.

We settled down to watch Tarzan. After a while, about 8:15, I went into the kitchen to get something to drink. For some reason, I picked up the phone to see if we had any phone messages - on the phone company voice mail system that we have, the dial tone is several staccato pulses when you have messages rather than the usual steady tone. Sure enough, there were messages. I dialed the voice mail number and entered my code. One message.

"Hello, this is Maggie Speak from Jeopardy and I'm trying to reach Dave Simpson." She then gave a number for me to call back. My heart was pounding.. Quickly, I tried to call back, but I got Maggie's voice mail. I left a message. I went back to the living room and couldn't sit still to watch the movie.

I was excited - was Maggie calling to invite me onto Jeopardy!? Why else would she call? But . . . I was confused. It had been 21 months since I'd auditioned back in May, 2006. They said we'd only be in the contestant pool for a year. What was going on? I'd have to wait until the next day - the next snowy and icy day - to find out. It gave me plenty of time to wonder, to dream, and to remember the process that had gotten me to this point.

To the next installment - THE FIRST AUDITION