Silent Call

The Samaritans Charity has faced an interesting challenge since it changed it's practice a couple of years ago by offering a totally freephone number for people to be connected to a trained volunteer.
Where we would be receiving intermittent callers over a volunteer shift, now we often have queues of callers waiting to be connected.
The charity needs more volunteers covering more 24/7 shifts,
plain and simple.

Some volunteer shifts can be challenging too
In addition to the calls you may expect to receive, there are other calls that can complicate a volunteer's work
"Snap" calls are calls where the caller puts down the phone immediately after your preamble of
"Hello Samaritans...can I help you/"
Sometimes that snap call may be a genuine caller who for whatever reason is not quite ready to talk to a volunteer. Sometimes its just a case of the caller not quite connecting to the voice they hear. Some callers prefer talking to a particular gender, that need is perhaps obvious.
Some sex callers want to female Samaritan to talk to. that's an unfortunate and sad reflection of some people's need.
Silent Calls can be a challenge too. Often these may be initiated by people who are so nervous or so distressed that their emotions render them mute and in these calls it is up to the volunteer to remain of the phone offering supporting comments in order to give space and time for the caller to start some sort of interaction.
These silent calls can last quite a few minutes and many end with an eventual hang up.

Last night I had a somewhat difficult silent call
It was my first call of the evening.

"Hello Samaritans...…..Can I help you?"
silence
I gently repeated my opening and stopped to listen
Silence again, but the connection was made. The line was active.
I thought I heard something
"Hello Samaritans?" I repeated and listened again
A minute of so later I asked if the caller was alright
More silence
I told the caller to take their time and that I was not going anywhere
I took a sip of my coffee
And a human scream burst through the receiver which made me jump out of my chair and caused my fellow Samaritan on duty to suddenly look over to me in concern.
The scream was followed by a loud thud then silence again
My nerves jangled but I remained calm and repeated I was a Samaritan and asked if everything was alright.
Silence again
I strained to listen for any clue of what on earth was going on. I wanted to hear a word or a whisper for help. Crying? or even giggling (hoax calls often can be perpetrated by children mischief making)
but there was nothing, except a faint indistinct noise that could have been a faraway tv, radio or even  traffic sound.
I asked again if everything was alright
and minutes passed very slowly.
Another indistinct sound, something being moved. A groan? or was it my imagination.
I calmly repeated that I was a Samaritan
My colleague ended his own call and stopped to listen
I had been on the phone for almost ten minutes when a second much shorter scream made me jump again, I couldn't tell if it was male or female
and a moment after I had asked if whoever was there could tap the receiver to let them know they were there the handset was quietly replaced on the phone
And the call was ended with a soft click

Make of the call what you will.
My colleague came over to my desk and I debriefed to him over more coffee and chocolate biscuits
He could tell I was somewhat rattled
But we talked it out then and I talked it out with my shift leader before continuing the shift with a collection of appropriate calls, several of which were "good" calls,
Callers who obviously gained something positive from their connection with Samaritans

Ending my shift, I walked down the dark back street in Rhyl where our centre is located and hurriedly got into Bluebell with a bit of a shiver.
Before I started the engine.
I clicked the central locking button with a bang