Relay Call

I had a new experience today. Its called a relay call. It didn't actually work extremely well, but that was no fault of mine.

While at work the phone at the children's desk rang and my supervisor wasn't there to answer it. Which means I'm supposed to answer it. The caller ID didn't have a name, but I saw it was from an 800 number. What?

"Childrens Book, this is Sarah."

"Hi Sarah, I'm calling for AT&T's relay service. Are you familiar with how relay calls work?"

"Uh, No..." I was tempted to say, 'I'm sorry, but you've got the wrong number', because the way she said it was so telemarketer, and the words were kinda telemarketerish anyway, but I didn't.

"Well, in a relay call I have a customer here on the computer. What they type I say to you, and then what you say I type to them."

"Oh, ok." So is this for a deaf person, or someone with some other kind of disability? I didn't ask.

"Alright. Their question is, 'Do you have any Obama books'?"

"Obama books? Can they give me a specific title or author?"

I heard the sound of typing on a keyboard. I waited. After a short while I went to the computer and looked up 'Obama'. Books he wrote and books with his name in the title came up. They probably should have called the General Book desk or office instead of Childrens, but for some reason they called the Childrens Book Desk. (I've gotten a couple weird calls at the Childrens desk. One person wanted directions to the administration building. Why did they call the BYU Bookstore Childrens Book desk? Why not call BYU Information? I tried my best to give them directions, and then I looked up the BYU information desk number and put it in my drawer, to give to people in case something like that happens again. But I digress.)

"There is no respose yet," I heard from the phone.

"Oh, um, thats ok."

Pause.

"Still no response."

Pause.

"Uh, could you ask them if they want books by Obama, or books that are about Obama?"

Typing on the other end.

"Still no response."

Pause.

"Still no response."

Pause.
My supervisor walked up to the desk, saw me on the phone, smiled briefly, and left again.

"Still no response."

Pause.

"Still no response. I'm not sure they're still there. I guess theres no point in staying on the line."

"Oh, well thats ok." How does one end a call with some random person they'll probably never speak to again? "You can just call back if they say something." Probably not that. It sounded kinda stupid. Oh well, I'll get over it.

"Yes, I'll do that."



The End.