"Good morning." "Malius software." "I'm Cara." "How can I assist you today?" "I just bought your spreadsheet application." "And every time I try to open it, my computer crashes..." "Hello." "Malius software." "How can I help you today?" "Hi." "Is this the, uh, tech support line?" "Yes, it is." "I'm having a problem upgrading my on the Load version 7. 1" "That'll fix it?" " Absolutely..." " Thanks for your help." "...just turn it on and turn it off and then back on..." "Uh, let's start by clicking on the menu bar, and scrolling down to the information icon." "Power to reboot." " Just shut down your computer, and..." " You've been very helpful." " Thanks so much." " My pleasure." "If you have any other problems, call back and ask for Lee." "I'd be happy to help you again..." "It's worked out in the newer version, so what you'll need to do is go to appli-yes." "A bug in your streaming proxy." "Oh, no... is that bad?" " Well, not..." " Don't load mpegs off the internet." " I don't see it." " On your desktop..." " It's... it's the blue icon" " What's an icon?" "Ma'am, it's the only thing on your desktop." "Desktop." "You mean my screen?" "Okay." "On your screen, do you see the words "malius software"?" "I see something that looks like, uh..." "Is it a trashcan?" "How about the word "installer"?" "Um... do... you put the disc in, didn't you?" "I think I did." "I..." "You didn't put the disc in?" "Mm... where does the disc go?" "How can you be such a fucking...?" "Hello?" "I'd like to see you in my office, please." "Do you understand why I killed the call?" "No, Mr. Pierce." "I don't." "I..." "I heard it in your voice." "A tightening of the vocal cords." "Thins out the upper registers." "You were seconds away from screaming obscenities at the caller." " What?" "No, no, no..." " I cut you off before that happened." "She'll think it was phone error." "Call back." "Get another tech, who can offer her proper help." " I was offering..." " Without snapping." " I wasn't gonna snap!" " I need team players" " I am a team player!" " You were about to scream at her." "I was not!" "My ears don't lie." "You know, why don't you go fuck yourself, Larry!" "Huh?" "Fuck you!" "Fuck your callboard!" "Fuck your phone!" "Fuck your ears!" "And fuck yourself, you fuckin' prick!" "Come on!" "Let's go!" "Hide it behind the garbage!" "Yep... and I think Celia's gonna get fired, I really do." "She keeps challenging Brit." "I mean, Brit's the team leader, and she just doesn't have any good ideas." "Her proposal for the eye campaign was so boring." "I think she's history." "I mean, she wasn't in next week's preview." "What the hell is that?" "Oh, the smoke detector." "Needs new batteries." "Remind me to get some tomorrow." "Speaking of tomorrow..." "It's that time again, Larry." "Maybe we should go..." "Someplace for dinner, first." "Where would you like to go?" "Someplace quiet." "Oh, I had that dream again!" "Only this time..." "we weren't on an island." "We were in the forest, and it was so, so cold." "You were making a fire to keep us warm, and I was out looking for firewood, and I saw her, playing there, on a snow bank." "There she was, Larry." "Face it." "You got caught." "He saw you." "There's no way he could have seen me, okay?" "From his little perch, he can't see into my cubicle." "No way." "I'm telling you." "What are you telling us, exactly?" "Hidden cameras." "Right?" "In the ceilings." "I wouldn't put it past those tools in management." "Listen to what I'm saying." "That's not it." "He heard me." "He heard you?" "How, exactly, do you hear someone instant messaging?" "Yeah!" "No shit!" "My fingers tapping the keys on my cell?" "I know it's not possible." "I'm telling you, he heard me." "You're just pissed off you got caught loafing off again, you moron." "The guy's a goddam freak." "No!" "Give him a break!" "After what he's been through?" "Give him a break?" "Do you remember how soon he came back to work, after it happened?" "Yeah." "It was like the next day." "Yeah." "A normal guy would have taken a leave of absence." "Something." "Shows you how heartless the guy is." "That's how he dealt with it." "And everyone has a different way of dealing with loss." "Statistically, these kinds of abnormalities are very rare." "But in most cases, they are operable." "In Michael's case, the cardiac tissue is deteriorating so quickly that the normal procedure we would do is just not an option." "If we'd caught it a year, or two years earlier, we'd have had a better chance..." "As it is... all that I can offer your son at this point is a way to minimize his pain." "I'm sorry." "I'm so sorry." "Now click on network." "Uh... okay." "Now choose TCP/IP." " IP?" " Yup!" "All right." "But what if it's gone for good?" "What if I can't get it back?" "Hey, hey." "It's ok." "Your data isn't gone." "It's just lost." "All we have to do is find where it got to." "Okay?" "I'm gonna help you." "Thank you." "Okay?" "Larry." "Guess what I found out today." "Jim's wife, Sarah?" "She's expecting." "Can you believe it?" "I didn't even know they were trying." "Especially since she's the only one working at the moment, what with Jim being unemployed and all?" "Did she tell you she was expecting?" "No." "So Jim told you?" "Who told you then, Brenda?" "No one told me, Larry." "I watched her getting her mail, this morning." "Oh." "You watched her, getting her mail and I could just tell." "She had... an aura about her." " An aura." " She glowed, with a radiance, like..." "You wouldn't know anything about it, would you, Larry?" "Would you?" "I'm not hungry, daddy." "Look, pumpkin." "I want you to eat something, okay?" "You want to grow up to be a big girl like mommy, don't you?" "That's my girl." "Love you, sweetheart." "Anyhow... so how was work today?" "Larry!" "I was asking how work was today." "I didn't see any auras, I'll tell ya that." "Come on, Larry." "This is supposed to be our special night." "Don't spoil it." "We only get one chance a month, Larry." "I terminated a woman." "What?" "She was describing, to a tech, a problem with our graphics application." "A common bug." "We hear it a lot." "It's usually a 3-minute call." "About 90 seconds in, I killed it." "Just like that." "Don't know why I did it." "The call was going well." "But I did." "No one said anything." "Huh... guess you got away with it." "Love you, Larry." "Love you" "Hey, neighbor." "Little one-on-one before work?" "What's up, Lar?" "Guess I, uh..." "owe you a congratulations?" "Aren't you...?" "I... my mistake." "Goodbye." "Oh!" "Oh, right!" "That!" "How did you..." "how did you know?" "We... we haven't told anybody about that yet." "I guess my wife must have spoken with yours." "Ah." "She never told me." "Well, thanks, Larry!" "Still hasn't sunk in, I guess." "8 months is a long ways off." "But, you know, I... there's so much to look forward to, you know?" "I'm really, uh..." " Well, you know what I mean." " Yeah." "How... how are you and Brenda doing?" " Doin' all right?" " Just fine." "Well... 3:15, 3:45... 6:32, 5:42" "8 minutes" "Call duration averages are up across the board, Larry." "Play ratios at 19 percent?" "That's more than the past 6 months combined." "I rely on you to run operations smoothly, here." "I know, sir." "Look." "We've all tried to be there for you and Brenda, during this tough time." "And we offered you a paid leave of absence." "You declined." "Frankly, I'm still kickin' myself for..." "Not forcing you to take it." "But I can't afford to make that same mistake twice." "Now..." "I'd like you to talk to someone." "He's very good." "Helped a bunch of us in management quit smoking, just like that." "And he's discreet." "I don't need a shrink." "Really." "Motivational therapist, Larry." "And, to be honest with you, it's not a suggestion." "You've made some pretty bad decisions in the last quarter." "I need to get your numbers up." "More importantly, I need to have you back to your old self." "I'll have Debbie make the first appointment, if that helps." "Deal?" "Sometimes, it gets lonely." "It just gets so lonely." "We all get lonely, ma'am." "It's nothin' to be ashamed of." "But I have no one to talk to any more, now that he's gone." "But he's not gone." "Ma'am?" "Wha... what do you mean?" "Well, his body may be gone." "But not his spirit." "I'd say it's a person's spirit that's the whole reason we love them in the first place." "Your husband had a big spirit, didn't he?" "Oh, yes." "He certainly did." "Look." "Nothing can replace him." "You can't bring him back." "But you have his spirit with you always." "Never let go of that, and you'll never be lonely again." "Your job is to offer solutions to customers' software problems." "Period." "I know that." "Uh... she was having problems with her DSL connection..." "She was having problems with her life." "And it took another... what... minute and a half, to talk through them with her?" "You know?" "To be more than just some robotic voice on the other end of the line?" "Look, I know the rules, Mr. Pierce." "But I also know my heart." "How old are you?" "What's that have to do with anything?" "I should report this to management." "Fine." "At least I'll walk out of here with a clear conscience." "Larry!" "You scared me!" "What were you doing in there?" "Nothing." " What are you hiding, Brenda?" " Nothing...!" "Larry... we need to start thinking about the future..." "Don't you ever go in there again." "You understand?" " Larry..." " You understand?" "You aren't allowed in his room!" "You talk about him like he's still alive!" "Shut up!" "For once!" "Shut up." "Do you know how many conversations I monitor on average, every day?" "5 hundred and 31." "That's 2, 655 times a day, I'm listening to other people complain about their problems." "Yes, but I'm here to listen to you talk about your problem, Larry." "I don't have a problem." "Ah." "I don't have a problem." "Yeah?" "I used to say that to myself every morning, as I reached for my fix." "3 packs a day, Larry." "Never gave it a second thought." "My dad died of lung cancer." "I don't have a problem." "A year later, my mother passed away." "Still, I don't have a problem." "But, hey." "Do you wanna know the secret?" "Of how I learned to tell myself that I did have a problem?" "Next session, friend." "No, but that... hey." "That curiosity you just showed was a good first step." "Something is eating you up inside." "What is it?" "Is it anger?" "Bitterness?" "Is it guilt?" "'Cause all of these are completely normal feelings to have, when you've gone through a loss like you have." "And living on an island of denial, like you are, it's very dangerous." "You do have a problem, Larry." "And acknowledging that is the first step toward fixing it." "It works!" "I haven't had a smoke in 6 years." " I don't know..." " Hey, hey." "It's okay." "Think of this first session as our meet 'n' greet." "All right?" "Your foot's in the door." "But next session, we get down to business, my friend." "Okay?" "How's next Tuesday for you?" " Should be good." " Okay." "Hi, Kim." "Uh... how is, uh, Tuesday for Mr. Pierce?" "Right." "Sounds good." "Thank you." "Okay." "How is 5:30?" "That won't work." "Okay." "How 'bout, uh, 6:30?" "Where's your secret stash?" "I'm sorry?" "You're Jonesing for one right now, aren't you?" "Don't have a problem, my ass." "I haven't had a smoke in 6 years, my friend." "I'm not your friend." "You're a goddam fraud." "I can hear it." "Whoa." "Hey!" "Whoa, whoa, wait." "Hold on." "What do you mean, you... you can hear it?" "Hear what?" "Your addiction." "Oh!" " Hello." " Hey." "I decided not to report you." "It was a first offense, so I'm letting it slide." "But I can't say I'll be so forgiving the next time." "Thanks." " You headed to lunch?" " Yeah." "You wanna join me?" "Outside?" "Grab a couple sandwiches?" "Get some fresh air?" "Uh..." "It's on me." "All right." "I come here for the quiet." "Yeah?" "Yeah." "It's pretty quiet." "You like working the phones?" "Eh." "You know." "It's a job." "You're a good listener." "I can hear it." "In your voice." "Yeah." "Most people are afraid to listen." "They think if they do, they might hear what's behind all the noise." "Silence." "Silence scares them." "Like if noise is the sound of life, then somehow, silence must be the sound of..." "So what do they do?" "They surround themselves with more noise." "Put noises on top of noises." "TVs." "Cell phones." "Their own voices, gabbing away endlessly." "They think that the more noise they make, the more alive they are." "But they're the ones who are living on an island of denial." "Because they refuse to listen." "To really listen." "You understand?" "Good." "'Cause if you listen, I mean, really really listen, then you know what happens?" "Something amazing." "You understand that silence is the only thing that connects us all." "Me and you." "You and mom." "It connects us all, forever and ever and ever." "I never want you to forget that, 'Kay?" "Good boy." "Now let's just sit here a bit longer." "Deal?" "Um, I..." "I ought ta get back." "I have a boat." "A day sailor." "Did most of the work on her myself." "Nothing fancy." "She's fun to take out for a spin." "Wanna come out with me?" "This weekend?" "Thanks, but... um, I have plans." "Oh, well." "Maybe another time." "It's great when you get way, way out." "There's almost no noise at all." " Larry." " Mm-hm." "I have some news." "Oh." "I met a tech today." "At work." "Young guy." "Real nice." " I'd like to ask him over for dinner..." " Larry... one of these nights." "I was thinking maybe Tuesday..." "Larry!" "You aren't listening." "What is it?" "Larry?" "I'm pregnant." "Isn't it wonderful?" "I told you." "My dreams were speaking to me." "It's like each one was a little offering of hope, you know?" "A little... sign, like an angel telling me everything will work out." "Just have faith." "At first, I-I didn't want to believe it." "Was afraid we would be disappointed again." " But then, this morning..." " Brenda..." "Something wonderful happened." "It was only two days ago that we made love." "Brenda." "It was only two days ago." "How could you possibly know?" "I felt it." "I felt it move inside." "Well, what do you want me to say?" "Say you're happy!" "It's a boy, Larry!" "We're having another boy." "Well, what do they expect?" "I mean, it's not like management didn't see this one comin'." "So irresponsible." "Why you think they keep him up in that office so much?" "I heard he made a pass at the guy." "He always was a weirdo." "Larry, a tech quit yesterday." "Nothing new in that." "You know the kind of turnover we're up against." "Nature of the job." "But before he quit, he gave this to human resources." "It's a complaint form, Larry." "It says you harassed him." "Said you made some inappropriate overtures?" "Now I'm inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt, Larry." "Especially when he didn't have the..." "guts to confront you personally." "But then Dr. Hammer calls, and says that your session didn't go so well yesterday." "Now you've been with us for 6 years, Larry." "You're an important part of this team." "But there's a certain protocol I have to follow in situations like this." "I have to put you on probation." "You can still come to work, but one more misstep and I have to let you go." "No more." "Be still." "Be still." "Be still." "Just tryin' to get a cab." "I'll meet you..." "Be still." "Be still." "Be still." "Be still." "Be still... oh." "Hey, Larry." "Jim." "I thought you'd be at work." "I didn't wake you, did I?" "Not at all." "Uh... found this in my front lawn." "Oh." "Thanks." "No problem." "Oh, hey!" "How's yours and Brenda's Thursday night lookin'?" " Not good." " Oh." "Everything all right?" "Brenda's a bit under the weather." "Sorry to hear that." "Well, maybe next week, then." "Yeah, there's definitely some kind of bug goin' around." "Sarah's feelin' kinda crappy, too." "'Course, maybe it's the morning sickness, but..." "You guys come by, you know?" "I'll fire up the grill, throw on a couple rib-eyes." "We'll pop a few PBRs, and make it a night." "How's that sound?" "Larry." "Larry!" "Sounds... great!" "Not sure what you did, but it runs like new now." "Ah, I'm glad I could help." "Problem solved?" "Yes!" "Problem solved." "Thank you so much." "It's my pleasure." "Muchas gracias." "De nada, señorita." "All right, sir." "You won't have to worry about that one any more, huh?" "No." "You're a certifiable life-saver." " Thanks." " You're welcome, sir." "Hey, mister." "Yo." "I said it's 8:59." "Sorry." "I didn't hear you." "I didn't hear you." "Hardware problems are not a software problem." "Click on force quit." "I need to tell you, though, that you will lose any unsaved changes." "Okay." "I'm opening system preferences now." "Now I need you to click on "network"." "Um... okay." "Now choose TCP/IP." " IP?" " That's right." "Um... okay." "Yep." "Now what does it say under DNS service?" "There's... there's nothing there." " Nothing?" " Nuh nuh... no." "All right." "That's a little strange." "Are you sure?" "It's totally blank." "Okay." "Weird." "Are you gonna be able to fix this?" "Hey, Lar!" "The truth is, you've got a real problem on your hands." "Oh God." "Sir, you deleted an application you shouldn't have, and now your whole operating system is corrupted." " All I can say is..." " Entire system is on the verge of crashing, and nothing will be retrievable if it does." "Do you understand what I'm saying, Larry?" " You have made some pretty bad decisions..." " Living on an island of denial..." "You talk about him like he's still alive!" "No!" " What have you done, Larry?" " No!" "Larry, they told me you terminated all the calls from..." "Larry!" "Hey!" "What the hell is going on?" "Are you even listening to me?" "Larry!" "I knew." "I knew you'd understand." "Stop it!" "They'll hear you!" "Be quiet." "Be still." "Be still." "Stop it!" "Make it stop!" "Make it stop!" "Make it stop!" "Stop it!" "Stop!" "I want you back." "I just want you back." "I hear you." "I can hear you now." "It's okay." "I'm here now." "Appear to have a domestic disturbance at 10791 Maple Street." "Mr. Pierce!" "Clear." "Oh, Jesus Christ."