The chatter was dying to a minimum then in the large, dark room. Nearly thirty girls were crammed into the window-less space, all dazed with exhaustion and ready for sleep.
It was one A.M. in the morning. With a final warning for the younger girls to stay off the older girls’ air mattresses, the light switch flicked off. It was momentarily silent.
I grinned. May the fun begin.
Sure enough, the first giggle brought on a domino effect. One girl, two girls, three girls. Then snorting girls. Snoring girls (fake snoring). Cell phones buzzing.
Cell phones?
The cell phones buzzed and rang a few more times before all girls were told to silence their mini life-lines. We had to wake early the next morning, so we needed our sleep.

5 MINUTES LATER…

BUZZ. BUZZ. BUZZ.

I heard a cell phone, the flip style, open and then slam shut. Someone was receiving a text message. It didn’t really bother me, considering I wasn’t really that tired. I was accustomed to staying up until the early hours of the morning.
Thirty seconds later, it happened again.

BUZZ. BUZZ. BUZZ.

Suddenly a redundant voice not far from me piped up, “Will someone turn that off?”
Another voice agreed sleepily, mumbling something about needing to get up at 8 a.m.
It buzzed again, three very loud vibrations. Rolling over onto my back, I nudged my friend Brit who was sharing my queen sized air mattress with me. “Who’s phone is that?”
“Huh?”
“Who’s phone is going off?”
She craned her neck around to peer at me. “I don’t know.”
The redundant voice broke through the air once again. “OK! I’m going to punch whoever has that phone! I can’t sleep!”
That brought on a series of giggles and groans in the room. No one could see who the source of the voice was, but we all had a pretty good idea it was coming from the young child sleeping by the wall.

30 MINUTES LATER…

I heard a loud groan.
Will she just let it go and stop complaining? I thought. The vibrations hadn’t ceased, and neither had the redundant voice.
A girl sleeping near my feet jumped up with a flashlight. “Ok, that’s it!” she proclaimed.
Redundant sat up in her sleeping bag. “What are you doing? Turn that light off!”
“Shhh. I’m going to find the cell phone.”
After a quick sweep of the surrounding sleeping bags and no luck, the girl went back to bed. I sighed. So the search was off.

45 MINUTES LATER…

BUZZ. BUZZ. BUZZ.

The youth leader sat up by the door, and stood to her feet. She wandered to the middle of the room and waiting, listening for another vibration.
When it didn’t come, she went back to her sleeping bag next to her baby in the far corner. People were getting too tired to search for the phone anymore, but I was still very much awake.
As soon as the woman laid back down, I heard the phone yet again.

BUZZ. BUZZ. BUZZ.

I threw the blankets off me, cringing at the cold air in the room. Enough was enough.
I saw a few heads pop up and look at me, and I realized I wasn’t the only one being disturbed. Redundant girl still hadn’t shut up, and was getting worse by the minute. No one could silence her no matter what words were used.
Redundant girl watched as I walked to the center of the room and sat indian-style on the floor. She sat up in her sleeping bag and decided to strike up conversation.
“What’s your name?”
I rolled my eyes in the dark. Seriously?
“Shh. It’s okay, I’m going to find the cell phone so people can sleep.”
She laid back down as I waited. And waited. Then waited some more. The phone had to go off at some point.

BUZ…

I heard half of a vibrate alert and whipped my head around. Much to my shock, I caught a flash of Redundant Girl slamming a cell phone closed and into a bag, then pulling the sleeping bag tight to her head.
I sat there in mere awe, amazed at what I’d just discovered. No way. No WAY! The same girl who’d been yelling for the past hour was responsible for the noise?
Leaning forward, I tapped my friend Kelly and whispered, “Hey, Kelly, does that girl have a cell phone?” I was still hoping my eyesight had deceived me.
Kelly lifted her head. “Um, I don’t know, but the noise is coming from that direction.”
Redundant girl popped her head up again. “What’s your name?” she asked me again.
“What’s YOUR name,” I counter-questioned her. She gave her name to me.
“Well, I’m Mandee. Do you have a cell phone?”
“No,” she answered quickly.
Suddenly, another head shot up from the confines of a near sleeping bag. It was a very sleepy and very annoyed Hannah.
“Yes she does!!! I SAW it!!”
I calmly stood to my feet and looked down at Redundant Girl. “Ok. You need to turn your cell phone off now.”
She looked up at me with a pout. “But it’s not mine! See?” She reached into her bag. “It’s been in my bag!”
Of all the nerve. “Well even if it’s not your’s, you need to turn it off until morning.”
She sighed with a dramatic, “Okay.” I stood there watching, to ensure the cell phone would in fact be turned off under my supervision. Then I wandered back to bed, just hoping all would remain silent from then on out.
A voice called out quietly, “Thankyou, Mandee!” I wasn’t the only one who was going to appreciate the quiet.

THE NEXT DAY…

I was sitting quietly in the second row from the front in the church sanctuary. I had my Bible open on my lap and I was taking notes. The story of the night before had already circulated around, and I was the hero for the day.
Redundant Girl was coming. Oh snap. She sat next to me and didn’t pay any attention to the fact that I was reading and writing. Lord, give me patience with this young girl…
“How old are you?”
I looked up, not wanting to flat out ignore her.
“Twenty,” I replied.
“What’s your name?”
“Mandee.”
Silence. A minute later, she walked away. Cell phone girl had met her match, and she wasn’t about to sit next to the very one who’d caught her in an outright lie.
I subtly smirked. Was I that scary?