Another story about a call-centre (you can find the first one here). Enjoy!
The distorted buzzing of the telephone bored into his ear. Around him, the other telephone jockeys were hunched into their cubicles, headphones gripping their heads. He hadn’t made a sale all day, and the boss was watching him.
“Hello?” a granny on the line.
He was only getting grannies today, and they weren’t interested in high-speed ISDN internet, though they’d hum and haw if it kept him on the line. “Good afternoon, ma’am. My name is Ewan. I’m calling to let you know how you can surf even faster—“
“Ewan? My God, how have you been?”
“Fine thanks, ma’am. How are you? Wouldn’t you like to see how fast you can explore the worldwide w—“
“Did your mother tell you to call?”
Senile. Great. Time to hang up and hit redial. “Sorry, ma’am, the line’s not great. I’ll try again later with an amazing deal for y–“
“I’m not going into a home!”
“No, ma’a–“
“I’m sorry, but your mother’s a bitch, Ewan.”
The old woman sounded like his own Grandma. And his mother was a bitch.
“I’m afraid I have to go now.” He needed to make a sale.
“Wait! What’s it like there?”
“It’s fine,” said Ewan. “Nice people, interesting job.” Like Hell. But the supervisor was right behind him, his earphones on, listening in to calls. Best to play it safe and pretended he liked the shitty job.
“I’m glad,” she said. “You were my favourite.”
“Thanks.” Play along and get off the call. “You too.”
“The doctors say it’s inoperable.” She didn’t sound upset, almost proud that her sickness was serious.
“I’m sorry,” said Ewan.
“Not your fault, Ewan. Besides, it’ll be nice to see you again.”
“Sorry?”
“I’m quite looking forward to it. It didn’t hurt when you went, did it? At the very end?”
The sound of the call centre around him had melted into a roar dulled by the faux-leather pads of his headphones. She sounded so much like Grandma.
“No,” he said. “It was fine.”
He wasn’t sure which of them hung up, but the supervisor was staring, so he pressed the redial button and the buzzing in his head started again.
And I’m looking forward to seeing you again next Thursday for another piece of flash fiction!
Na ja-gefallen mir beide Geschehnisse mit dem Callcentre.
Ist ja auch manchmal nervig, den Inhalt der Anrufe zu erfassen!
Beide Gedanken interessant lustig dargestellt.Oma und Bank!
Verwirrende Situationen-spannend und interessant.
Kurz und bündig;was nicht alles im Netz passiert.
Liebe Grüsse.
Danke Siggi!