legends · 4 min read ·
Open Line
A radio phone-in's run sheet shows each caller describing the window of a house that watches the next caller.
**Night Lines · Producer's Run Sheet · Thursday**
**Host:** Gerald Ness · **Slot:** 00:00–02:00 · **Lines:** open · **Screener:** J. Platt
*Screening rule: take calls from listeners who can describe something they have seen. Do not put through callers who only describe what they have heard.*
· · ·
**00:12 · Caller 1 (screened)** Says he has a sister who lives in the house opposite his. She sits at her window every night. She has been sitting there for thirty years. She never waves. She just watches him come home.
*Screener: Caller is calm. Describes the sister's window. Says the window has no curtains.*
**Status:** Put through.
· · ·
**00:19 · Transcript excerpt**
**GERALD:** You can see her from your window?
**CALLER:** Yes. She's always there, the light on behind her. I've never been inside her house. We don't speak. But she's been turning her head a little more each year, and this week I think she's looking at my door.
**GERALD:** When did you first notice?
**CALLER:** Nineteen years ago. That's when she started. Before that she just watched the street. Now she watches the house.
**GERALD:** Which house?
**CALLER:** Mine.
· · ·
**Screener note (J. Platt, 00:24)**
Caller 2 has been on hold for twenty minutes. Describes a radio in the next room playing the show, a few seconds behind the broadcast. Says the presenter's voice in the other room is the same as his, only lower, and sounds like it's trying to say something before he does.
*Screener: Caller says he can't hear the show clearly. He thinks someone else is listening through his wall.*
**Status:** Not put through.
· · ·
**00:30 · Caller 3 (screened)** Says she was a nurse on the palliative ward at Ellis General. Describes a bed in the corner of the room that was always made up but never slept in. Says she was told it was for the families who wanted to stay overnight.
*Screener: Caller is clear. Details consistent. Says the bed is still there.*
**Status:** Put through.
· · ·
**00:33 · Transcript excerpt**
**CALLER:** The bed was for the patient with no relatives. Nobody was allowed to say why. It was always made up with a clean sheet, and every morning the sheet was smoothed flat, and there was never a dent.
**GERALD:** And now?
**CALLER:** I've come back. They pulled the ward down last year, but I can still see the bed. It's in the corner of my kitchen. It's been there since I moved in. I make it every night.
**GERALD:** Do you sleep in it?
**CALLER:** No. I make it for the one who comes in after I've gone to bed. She's very thin. She climbs in and lies on her side, facing the wall, and she doesn't ask for anything. I just make sure the sheet is smooth.
· · ·
**Screener note (J. Platt, 00:41)**
Caller 4 has called four times this week under different names. Says he has been listening to the show from a car parked outside the studio. Says the presenter is the one who should be worried.
*Screener: Caller is aggressive. Hung up on at 00:40 by the producer.*
**Status:** Not put through.
· · ·
**00:44 · Transcript excerpt (recovered from line recording after the broadcast)**
**GERALD:** Are you still there?
**CALLER:** Yes.
**GERALD:** What can you see?
**CALLER:** The car. The one outside your studio. You've just got in it. You're sitting in the passenger seat with your hands in your lap. You're looking at the building. Someone's standing at the window with the light behind them, and they're looking at you, and they've been looking for a long time.
**GERALD:** I'm in the studio.
**CALLER:** Yes. You are. And you're in the car. You're always in the car, Gerald. You've been listening to me since the start.
· · ·
**Producer's log (Thursday, 02:00)**
Broadcast ended. Line recorder shows 11 unlogged seconds after the close of transmission. Gerald Ness left the studio at 01:58. He was seen by security getting into a silver car in the car park, and sitting in the passenger seat with the door open and his hands in his lap.
The driver's seat is empty. The car has not moved.
· · ·
**Next day's run sheet (Friday)**
**Host:** Relief presenter. Gerald Ness has taken leave.
**Screener note:** Callers should be asked to describe what they can see, not what they can hear. Please do not put through any caller who mentions a window with the light on behind it.
**Producer's note:** Gerald Ness is back on air. He asks callers to describe what they can see, and he has not mentioned the car. The studio window has been covered with card. Nobody has asked why.