This evening, while I was sitting on the couch, I heard the sound of an alarm coming from upstairs. You know those old alarms that went ti-ti-ti-ti ti-ti-ti-ti?
As far as I remember, I don’t have an alarm like that, let alone having set one.
So, I go upstairs and try to identify where the sound is coming from. It seems to be coming from an undefined area of my studio, maybe from the desk. Did I bury some ringing gadget in the mess?
Anyway, I start looking but I can’t figure out exactly where the sound is coming from. I move things around and the only explanation is that it’s coming from inside the desk.
Even ICO, my dog, looks at me perplexed.
It’s a stand-up desk, so I disassemble the cable pass-through, remove some stuff and make space. Indeed, the sound is coming from inside the desk.
What the hell? In my head I start making hypotheses, seriously considering explosive devices, spy bugs, the possibility of going crazy, and so on. A prank? Maybe, but it seems unlikely.
After several dozen minutes of listening and pondering, I notice that from inside a passage that connects the two motorized legs, there’s a faint light, like the one a small screen might emit.
Ok, let’s try to slide it from the other side. By lifting the desk and using pens and various stationery as leverage, I manage to pull the light toward me.
It really seems to be something with a display. I manage to extract it. And with some surprise, I discover that…
It’s my old HTC smartphone from 2010.
WHAT?
Now: I have no idea how that object ended up there. I have no memory of the last time I - I won’t say used it - but at least saw it. Also, I remembered it being in my parents’ attic, about 200 km away from here.
However, excluding the paranormal, the most likely thing is that it somehow slipped in there without me noticing on some day in the past. I can’t think of any plausible explanation, but there’s nothing left to do but accept that it ended up there somehow.
But the real mystery is: how could it have turned on after all this time, emitting the sound of an alarm set decades ago? Did old Androids allow reminders when the phone was off? I doubt the battery would still be charged if it had been on.
Was I supposed to remember something today or did I accidentally set 2025 instead of 2015? When I tried to open the clock app, the phone turned off. To recharge it, I need a specific cable that I don’t have right now.
So, for now, the phone is off and I don’t think I’ll ever get to the bottom of this mystery.
For sure, I spent a rather strange half hour. Almost magical, I’d say.