telephone ringing
From the far end of the room, one of the seniors calls out to Ah Liang. Tonight was a Friday night, the call centre closes at 10 p.m. All the employees were preparing to go back home, perhaps take a ticket from the late-night metro. The needle of the clock in the middle of the room displayed 9.45 p.m. They would have to decline the call.
"The phone is ringing from room 2. Help tell the client to call us back tomorrow morning as we are going to close soon."
Ah Liang nodded. He was still a greenhorn in his late 20's. As such, he was still learning the ropes, and has yet to enter the "phone rooms". Due to the nature of the calls that were received at the call centre, mostly dealing with mental health concerns, the rooms meant to receive such calls are purpose-built - within a booth, a single desk, a chair, some papers and pens on the desk, and a large brick phone in the centre. This was the full extent of what Ah Liang known about these elusive chambers. For Ah Liang, this would be the first time he would be receiving a real call, not those training phoney calls the seniors used for practice.
Ah Liang rushes to the room in the middle, aptly named room 2. He hastily closed the door as he picked up the phone. The windows within the walls are obscured to ensure privacy. All surfaces within the room are soundproofed. The seniors on the other side could only wait patiently as Ah Liang answers the call.
Seconds pass, which soon grew into minutes. Yet, the door remains shut, not a single sound heard from within. It was eerily silent. The seniors observed the blurry silhouette within the room, motionless. Moments later, the silhouette begins to move erratically, seemingly waving something around by the window. This was a sign all the seniors dreaded - Ah Liang could no longer leave the room, starting from now. They now just needed to know the nature and severity of the situation. Another senior races towards the door, receiving the piece of paper from in between the slits to the darkroom. As the senior races back, her face was visibly contorted in shock.
"Start tracking the number calling to room 2." The senior addresses to the whole room. Within moments, all seniors present scrambled to action, dropping their belongings and rebooting PC's and equipment in various stages of storage. In their minds, they knew exactly the nature of the call received - Ah Liang, the recently hired apprentice greenhorn, had just received a suicide attempt. They have to begin tracing the location of the caller and dispatch ambulances immediately. The leading senior looks towards the clock, pen in hand. It would take 30 minutes at best to locate the caller and dispatch emergency services. Should the call stop at any moment before the 30-minute mark, they would lose the location of the caller, perhaps forever.
Tonight, they will be working overtime.
