The Callers

The Callers

Adam sits at Alice’s place, still yawning, and cursing himself a little bit for answering his phone when he saw the office number. They never call on your free day unless they want you to come in, and sure enough Alice hadn’t shown up and wasn’t answering, so here he was, covering for her. Well, at least they paid you double if you worked  on your free day.

He puts on the headpiece and taps the mic, listening to his own taps through the headphones, looks at the computer and sees the last name on Alice’s list from yesterday highlighted in green. Meaning it was still pending. He called that one first but got no answer, so he pulled the day’s sheet and started his calls, reciting like an automaton one by one.

By the end of his shift, he had finished with the sheet and had ten minutes to kill before he could check out, so he pulled out the highlighted number and called it again.

The phone rang one, two, three times, and he was about to press escape when a male’s voice answered.

“Hello?”

“Good evening, is Patrick Clays there?” Chirpy as ever.

“Speaking.”

“Hello Mr. Clays, I’m calling from your mobile provider service. I hope you’re having a great day, May I take 5 minutes of your time?”

“I didn’t get your name.”

“I’m sorry sir, Adam Clover. Pleasure to meet you.”

“Very well Adam Clover, I’m all ears.”

And Adam started reciting the pitch, as flawlessly as if he were praying. Now and then he could hear the client typing on his computer through the phone; he was used to this, most people didn’t stop working while they listened to the pitch. After he was done. And asked for the client’s permission to activate his membership, a silence followed.

“Mr. Clays?”

“I’m very sorry Adam, I was just thinking… is there anyway for me to know you are who you say you are?”

“Sorry?”

“Well, you know my home’s private number, and you know my name… am I right in assuming that you also know my address?”

“Well sir, all information on your contract including phone numbers and address., is protected by law.”

“Yes, I understand that, however, nowhere in my contract did it specify that my personal information would be released to an employee of the company. So tell me, is my address next to my phone number on your screen?”

“Well, yes sir, but I assure you that the company would never make ill use of your personal information.”

“Yes, well, it’s not the company I’m worried about.”

Adam closed his eyes for a second and rubbed them, asking himself why could he not play on his mobile instead of calling this creeper to pass those last ten minutes.

When he opened them, he saw that some people who should be leaving were gathering at the coffee room, looking at the news. Had something happened?

“Adam?”

“I’m sorry Mr. Clays, if you wish to, I can patch you over to our supervisor.”

“No, please don’t. Another person looking at my personal information is the last thing I wish.”

“Mr. Clays, please believe when I tell you, the company would never sell your information…”

“Tell me Adam, how would you feel if a stranger called you, saying he knows your phone, your name and your address, and then tried to sell you something? I can tell you what I feel. I feel threatened, and I fell I must accept, otherwise, you know where I live… isn’t that right?”

Man, what a freak… Adam looked over at the coffee room, and now Penelope was sitting on a chair crying and some other girl… the new one… what’s her name… had her arm around her.

To hell with this guy.

“I’m really sorry to have bothered you Mr. Clays, have a wonderful evening.”

“Adam?”

God, he never shuts up!

“Yes Mr. Clays?”

“How would you like to buy some peace of mind?”

“Look Mr. Clays, I’m just doing my job.”

And then, as he reached for the escape button, the man started reciting Adam’s name, mobile number and address, while the sound of a keyboard resonated through the headpiece.

“Look man, I’m sorry ok? I don’t know how you’re doing this but I’m just an employee, You got a problem, you can talk to the boss, a‘ight?”

“Tell me Adam, are you interested in some peace of mind?”

Adam pressed the escape key slamming it five or six times. Took off the headset, threw it on the desk and stood looking at it, as if it were a snake waiting to attack.

He looked up, and realized people were still in the coffee room, so he walked slowly towards them. He entered the room and was about to ask what was going on, when the picture on the TV caught his eye.

A girl lay dead in what looked like her apartment floor. He had never seen anything more bloody in his whole life, her ears were lying close to her, on top of the phone, and her tongue was dangling from where her chin should’ve been. Her eyes stared in horror at the camera.

“A-Alice? Is that Alice?”

--

“Hey George? It’s Neil, hey you think you could come in today? Adam hasn’t shown up and he’s not answering his phone. Yeah, I guess Alice’s death hit him harder than I thought. You can? Awesome. You can sit at his desk, I already transferred his calls from yesterday to his computer, there’s only one marked as pending. Awesome, see you in a while.”