legends · 4 min read ·
Volunteer Training Script
A helpline volunteer's call log records a call he has not yet answered, and the voice that says he can go home.
**Open Line — Volunteer Training Manual, Module 3: Taking the Call**
1. Answer within four rings. Say: "Open Line, you're through to a volunteer. Whatever you're carrying, you can put it down here for a while."
2. Do not give advice. Reflect what the caller says.
3. Never end a call before the caller does.
4. Log every call: time in, time out, a one-line note. Do not record the caller's name.
5. If a call goes silent, stay on the line. Say: "I'm still here."
· · ·
**Call log — Volunteer R. Ashby, night shift, 12 October**
- **Time in · Time out · Note**
- 22:04 · 22:31 · Man, anxious about work. Settled.
- 23:10 · 23:44 · Woman, bereaved. Cried, then talked.
- 00:18 · 00:20 · Silent. Stayed on line. Caller hung up.
- 01:52 · 02:30 · Man, insomnia. Talked about his garden.
· · ·
**Call log — Volunteer R. Ashby, 19 October**
- **Time in · Time out · Note**
- 22:15 · 22:49 · Woman, lonely. Long chat.
- 23:40 · 23:52 · Man, said he had "done something." Would not say what. Hung up.
- 01:05 · 01:21 · **Caller was a voice I know.**
*Supervisor's comment (K. Lindgren): Please expand the 01:05 entry.*
· · ·
**Volunteer's note (R. Ashby, 20 October)**
At 01:05 I answered in the usual way. "Open Line, you're through to a volunteer." A voice said, "Hello." Calm. Male. A little tired. The kind of voice you would trust to say your name.
I asked how I could help. He said: "I'd like to talk about a call you're going to have." I said I was afraid I didn't understand. He said: "Tomorrow night. At 01:05. You'll answer, and you'll say the sentence, and I'll say 'hello.' Then you'll ask how you can help."
I said that was what had just happened. He said: "Yes. That's how I know you did it right."
· · ·
**Call log — Volunteer R. Ashby, 21 October**
- **Time in · Time out · Note**
- 21:50 · 22:30 · Woman, anxious. Settled.
- 00:02 · 00:11 · Man, drunk, abusive. Ended by caller.
- **01:05** · **01:05** · **See note.**
*Volunteer's note: The line rang at 01:05. I picked up. I began the greeting. The caller said: "Hello." Same voice. I had already begun my reply, and I stopped, because I realised it was the voice I had heard on the call I took the night before, and I recognised the cadence of every word he said before he said it.*
· · ·
**Call recording review (K. Lindgren, supervisor, 22 October)**
I have listened to the recordings from the nights of the 19th and 21st. The call at 01:05 on the 19th has no content. It runs for 16 minutes in the log, and the recording is silent. I can hear nothing on the line but the sound of the volunteer's own breath and a faint hum.
The call at 01:05 on the 21st was recorded at 00:49 the previous evening. The file's timestamp predates the call by 16 minutes. In it, Mr. Ashby says: "Open Line, you're through to a volunteer." The voice that answers says: "Hello." And then Mr. Ashby says, in the recording, a sentence he has not yet said on the line: *"I'm still here."*
· · ·
**Call log — Volunteer R. Ashby, 26 October**
- **Time in · Time out · Note**
- 22:10 · 22:38 · Woman, grieving.
- 01:05 · — · See note.
*Volunteer's note: I took the call. I did not let him speak. I said it first, the whole of it, the sentence, the question, "I'm still here." There was a long pause. The voice said, very gently: "Thank you. That was the right thing to say."*
*Then he said: "You can go home now, Robert. I have the line."*
· · ·
**Supervisor's review (K. Lindgren, 28 October)**
Mr. Ashby's last logged call is dated 26 October. The call has no end time. His shift ended at 02:00. The recording continues for three hours and twelve minutes after that.
At 05:12 the recording ends. The last audible sound is a voice, calm, male, a little tired, saying "Open Line, you're through to a volunteer. Whatever you're carrying, you can put it down here for a while."
It is Mr. Ashby's voice. He says it perfectly. He has said it more than two hundred times since he left the building, one for each time the phone rang, and he has said it to every caller.