In December 1995, a Jewish family moved into an old Edwardian house in Aigburth. The youngest of the family was a girl named Alice, who had just turned fifteen. She was very pretty, and boys were always pestering her for a date, but Alice was determined to wait until the right guy came along. Although she was beautiful, Alice was also a bookish girl, and loved reading the Poldark novels. She had her eye on a boy who lived near her new Aigburth home, and his name was Damon. He was really clever, and she often met him and chatted when they walked their dogs in the local park.
One night, Alice dialled directory enquiries and asked for Damon's phone number. Luckily, for Alice, Damon's parents were not exdirectory, and soon Alice was scribbling down the number. She dialled Damon, but got an engaged tone. She tried again ten minutes later, but the line was still busy. Alice wondered if Damon was chatting on the phone with some girl, and with that depressing thought, she hung up and decided to read her romantic novel in bed. The phone rang later that night and Alice's father answered it. He shouted up to his daughter's bedroom, "Alice, you're wanted on the phone!"
Alice rushed downstairs and grabbed the receiver off her Dad and said, "Hello?" She wondered who it was.
A boy's voice said, "Hello."
"Hi, who are you?" Alice asked.
"Jason. Is that Sarah?" said the boy.
"I'm afraid you've got the wrong number." said Alice, and was ready to hang up.
Then the boy said, "I'm sorry. Hey, what's your name?"
"Why?" said Alice suspiciously. And yet she was also excited at the thought of a strange boy talking to her.
"You know my name. What's yours?" said Jason, and he seemed to have a laugh in his voice.
"It's Alice if you must know. Okay? Now goodbye." said Alice, pretending she was about to hang up.
"No wait!" Jason pleaded, "Don't go. Alice, what do you look like? I know this sound's dead corny but I imagine you as a tall girl with big blue eyes and long black hair."
Alice blushed as if Jason was standing in front of her. She gave a little nervous laugh and her heart fluttered.
"Why are you laughing? Do you think I've been spying on you?" said Jason, and he said, "Because I'm right aren't I? You are tall with long dark hair."
Alice bit her lip awkwardly and said, "Hundreds of girls have black hair and blue eyes .
Anyway, hadn't you better go and ring Sarah? I take it she's your girlfriend?"
"Not any more." said Jason, in a gloomy tone.
"Why?" Alice inquired.
Jason explained: "We just lost touch. I moved away from the area you see, but I've moved back now."
"Who are you talking to?" Alice's stern father asked suspiciously.
"Nobody." said his daughter, and glared at him for being so nosey.
"Was that your Dad?" Jason asked.
"Yeah. So, Jason, are you gonna get back with Sarah?" Alice asked.
"No, not now. It's been too long. She's probably with someone else now. Listen, why don't we meet somewhere?" Jason suggested.
"What? Meet? I don't know. I don't really know you!" said Alice, and she unconsciously twisted the telephone flex round her fingers.
"Oh go on. It'd be a laugh.' Jason insisted.
"Alice who is that on the phone?" the girl's mother asked. She was as puritanical as her husband.
"A friend - okay?" Alice shouted.
"Who is he?" her father asked.
"His name's Jason!" shouted Alice, "Can't I talk to my own friends without you two asking me twenty questions?"
"Don't talk to us like that!" Alice's father warned his insolent daughter.
Jason laughed at the other end of the phone and said, "Wow, you can't half answer back. My parents used to hit me when I gave cheek."
To get at her parents, Alice said, "Okay, I'll meet you someplace. How about MacDonalds?" "Where?" asked Jason, startled and surprised.
"You know, on the corner of Church Street and that other street, erm, Paradise Street isn't it? Yeah; there." said Alice, in a deliberately loud voice. The girl's parents recoiled with an outraged look.
"Okay, MacDonald's then." said Jason.
Alice said: "After school; about 4.15 to 4.30. How will we know each other?"
Jason replied nervously: "I'll be wearing a blue tee shirt and I've got blond curly hair. I'll wait for you outside near the entrance. And I'll know you Alice, because you're tall with long black hair aren't you?"
Alice laughed and replied: "I'm not that tall; I'm about five seven. See ya tomorrow then. Bye." And Alice hung up and went up to her room, singing. She felt so excited about the bizarre blind date.
On the following day she caught the bus to the Paradise Street Bus Station and arrived at MacDonalds at 10 past 4. But there was no sign of Jason. He didn't turn up, and he phoned that night to say he couldn't make it because he got cold feet and bottled out at the last minute. So another romantic rendezvous was arranged, again at MacDonalds. Jason didn't show again. He said he was detained at school for messing about in class. Alice didn't believe him and asked what school he attended. Jason said, 'I go to the Nugent High School in Edge Hill.' But when Alice told her Mum, her mother said that was funny, because her friend's son went to the Nugent High School, and that school had been demolished years ago. Jason, then, was lying. Alice told him he was a fibber, and Jason hung up after saying, "I love you Alice and you don't know why I'm shy."
Alice felt guilty at accusing her friend of lying, and when he rang again, she said, "Jason, I really like you. I don't know why you don't want to meet me, but if you're worried I might think you're spotty, or too small or ugly, I swear I will still like you. You've got a boss personality, and I think... oh nothing."
"You think what?" said Jason.
Alice looked around and waited until her Mum went into the kitchen, then she whispered: "I love you. Now do you believe me?"
"I love you too." Jason said, then started to cry.
"Don't cry," Alice said, "I don't care what you look like. We'll meet tonight eh? You can come around to my house." Alice gave Jason her address, and he swore he'd arrive at 7 in the evening. But seven o'clock came and went, and there was no sign of the boy.
At 9 p.m. the phone ran, and Alice dashed to answer it. It was Jason, and he finally dropped the bombshell. "You won't be hearing from me again Alice." he said in a broken voice.
"Don't be stupid." Alice said, and she asked him why he never turned up.
"You wanna know the truth?" Jason said, and sniffled.
"Yes, get it off your chest. Tell me why you won't face me?" Alice said, desperate to know why.
"I've been dead for five years. Dead!" Jason screamed, and the line went silent - deadly silent...
And that was the last Alice ever hard from that boy. Her mother got in touch with a psychic research group, and they claimed that a boy named Jason had lived in Alice's Aigburth home five years before. Jason had dropped dead while playing football outside in the street because he had something wrong with his heart. Was this the same Jason who had developed a crush on Alice? The psychic investigators thought so, because they discovered that Jason had curly blond hair, and that he had been dating a girl named Sarah before his untimely death. Even now, whenever the phone rings, Alice still jumps, just in case it's him.
