A married couple was sound asleep when the telephone suddenly rang at two o’clock in the morning. Startled awake, the wife reached over and answered the call while her husband remained half asleep beside her. She listened quietly for a few seconds, her expression growing more confused with every passing moment.

Finally, she sighed and said, “How should I know? That’s 200 miles from here!” Then she hung up the phone and placed it back on the nightstand. The room fell silent again, except now her husband was fully awake and staring at her with curiosity.

“Who was that?” he asked. “What did they want at this hour?” The wife shrugged her shoulders as if the answer was completely obvious. To her, the conversation had been strange but not particularly important. She pulled the blanket closer and prepared to go back to sleep.

Her husband, however, refused to let it go. Anyone calling at two in the morning had to have a reason. “Come on,” he insisted. “What did the person ask you?” The wife rolled her eyes and looked at him as though he were making a big deal out of nothing.

“They asked me,” she replied, “whether the coast was clear.”