Chapter 2

Laura quickly understood why they hired her so fast. For the next week and a half only Jill and herself showed up. Cynthia got a flat that took two days to fix and Tammy had trouble with her kid's babysitter. Paul was having some sort of out patient surgery the very next day and Laura didn't see him for again a solid two weeks. Being left to fend off the vicious ringing phones on her own she either learned the ropes or hung herself with them. She was a switchboard operator. Whenever she thought of switchboard operators she had visions of Auntie Mame working with a myriad of cords that gradually became entangled around her like a noose. These days switchboard operators didn't have cords to be choked with- only numbers. Laura's job was to direct all of the calls as they came into the college. Some callers could simply be transferred to the front desk: 1-3138. Those were the easiest besides the ones that simply had meant to call the main campus. The rest were patients or really owners of patients and these needed to be directed to the respective clinician. Each vet had their own extension number. But it wasn't so simple as to merely transfer a client asking to speak with Dr. Rainbow to Dr. rainbow's extension: 1-5476. The college had an electronic pager system that utilized the computers. You would enter the doctor's name, the clients name and number and the reason they were calling and then click send. A little count down would begin giving the doctors two minutes to call in. The whole time the client is waiting on hold- getting agitated. If the doctor actually called in then you'd have to find out if they wanted to take the call and if they did you'd transfer the line. Most of the time the count down would expire and then you would have to explain to the client (often several times) that the doctor was busy (you weren't sure doing what) and that they'd call them back (but you weren't sure when) and the patient would grumble and hang up.

Laura was always amazed when the doctors actually called in and she was able to transfer the client to their line. Its rarity made it into a feeling of success like reuniting long lost lovers. She always wondered if the client realized how lucky they were, that there had been ten before them that had been trying for three days but had always been transferred to the doctors phone mail in lieu of anything more hopeful.

Laura had a knack for remembering numbers. She had memorized her mother's credit card numbers- expiration date and all. She had memorized them just from the few times she had had to type them into the computer to buy something off the Internet. She had a random assortment of phone numbers in her head at all times, usually whatever she had had to dial more than once or had dialed most recently: Lucky cab service, El Mariachi's Mexican restaurant, the drug store and her ex-boyfriends phone numbers-all of them. So it surprised her when she found that all the numbers at work really rattled her. She would have to double-check two or three times that the number she was about to transfer a client to was what was written on the paper and she hadn't reversed it. In all fairness she had never had a time limit when memorizing numbers. She had committed them to memory in a slow paced, quiet atmosphere. But once you pushed the transfer button you had about five seconds to punch in 1 followed by the five digit extension or the line would begin to beep angrily at you and the call would be lost to dark void of a dial tone.

In between calls there would be lulls of boredom. Laura would stare at her screen and wait. It was like the calm before the storm. When the calls came they would be in hordes. But when they didn't she would waste away listening to Tammy complain about her bills and how her boyfriend wouldn't let her claim their four kids as dependents, and Cynthia would interject with meaningless comments. By the second week Laura started to wonder about the operators before her-perhaps there was a reason they went crazy. Jill was no solace. She would laugh at anything- no- everything and her laugh was like a girlish giggle that had grown up into a womanly cackle. Interspliced in all this was the occasional bleeping of the phone.

"College of veterinary medicine," Laura would answer.

"Hi, um...I'm not sure who I need to talk to-"

"Can I get your name?"

"Kelly Martin."

"What doctor are you trying to reach?"

"Um...I don't know." Then it would be a mad search of trying to sift through the client's memory for clues that could then be given to the medical records dept. to try and piece together the clients puzzle. In a college with over two hundred clinicians and residents they would give you physical descriptions of the doctor and expect you to be able to page them for their sick dog or cat. Then in the middle of this the phone would bleep again on a different line.

"College of veterinary medicine"

"Hi, I need Dr. Lloyd." Finally someone who knows who they want.

"Alright, may I get your name and number?" This question was always the telltale question. You would immediately know what mood the person was in and to what caliber the mood was capable of reaching.

"But I want to talk to them-,"

"I know, ma'mm, but I need-,"

"Is Dr. Lloyd there?"

"Ma'mm, I need to get your name and number so I can page them for you," Laura would manage to get in. They would then consent unwillingly.

"And your message please?" This question would really piss them off.

"MESSAGE? I just want to talk to them- tell them that!" It always amazed Laura that people could be so rude to people simply trying to help them. They just couldn't possibly accept that she had to do things by protocol or the vets would march down to the communications office and yell at her for being paged out of surgery for a personal call. (bleep) "College of veterinary medicine." Laura said with a tone of self-assurance. "Hi," the voice on the other end said with a quiver "I need a doctor- I think Binky is hurt...,"

This was the other aspect that made her jumpy on the phone- emergency calls. The people would be frantic, sometimes crying and she would need to direct them to right place quickly- again a time limit. It was when the doctors didn't call in when she had a bleeding dog on the phone that she was really tense. She was helpless. The dog could be dying on the other end and all she could do was re-send the page and hope that the doctor would call. "Dr. Harris is on emergency receiving today, Ma'mm, please hold and I'll page him for you."

"Please... so much blood."

"Please hold," Laura said with wild eyes. In her mind she could see the woman by the phone holding her dog in her arms in a pool of blood. They looked serene, almost like that statue of Mary holding Christ.

(bleep) Maybe it's Harris. In her mental image she saw the pious woman look up hopefully from her fallen Lord.

"Hello?"

"This is Dr. Lloyd." It wasn't the doctor she'd been waiting for. He was returning another client's call. "Get a hold of yourself," she thought.

"Oh, okay...I'll transfer you." Then back to waiting. The emergency call was reduced into a flashing light on the faceplate of Laura's phone. (bleep)

"Hello?"

"This is Dr. Harris- you paged me with an emergency?" It's him.

"Yes sir, I'll transfer the call to you." Laura said hanging up. The trick with transferring a call is you have about a second and a half to glance at the small LCD screen on the phone to get the location of the doctor. You need that number in order to transfer the call to them as they could be anywhere in the college. If you miss it- it's gone.

In her excitement Laura had missed it. She had remembered just a second too late as the numbers disappeared from the LCD screen. That was that. A sick feeling in her stomach worked its way through her entire body. She picked up the line with the client.

"Ma'mm- I um," She stopped as sounds of crying drifted over the receiver "Ma'mm," Laura tried again but all she heard was a click.