19 'n' Shambles

Angelic silence is what I would term it 'sometimes' but more often than not, it can be devilishly busy. There are periods of the day when not a sound comes from every one of us excepting for the loud heartbeat, an occasional murmur and if we are lucky, a multi grain cracker going soft in our upper palates.

Some of the places I see enroute to work are some of the wierdest I have come across. As I walk by, I can't help but notice the battered looks on some of them and I don't just mean the houses here...

Working in a domestic violence hotline, there have been times in the past when I have felt overwhelmed by the kind of people who call upon us for help. While some are genuine, there are some who are just plain homeless. Determined nonetheless, they attempt their luck with us conjuring a story of abuse just so a roof over their heads will be in the offing.

On one of these shifts of mine, I got a call from a girl who needed shelter for her and a 20 month old baby. OKAY, so I started interviewing her and found that she was barely 19 and had been married for about 4 years. Hold on a minute... " Did you say you are 19 and have been married for 4 years !?!" I asked, just wanting to be sure what I had heard. I almost missed the 'yes' she slowly said. When asked about the kind of abuse she was undergoing, she said it was mainly verbal. I duly noted that and before I went on any further, I heard a loud thud. My usually mundane reflexes were surprsingly good that day that it lured me out of the conversation almost instantaneously. I glanced around to check my surroundings, specifically a colleague of mine and there she was- hale and healthy, parked right there on the soft chair talking to some deserving soul on another line. I disengaged myself from the ever-so-alert mode and focussed again on 19...

It was then that I realised that the thud was coming from the phone and I heard the girl being verbally abused by her partner. It was my first ever and completely jolted me out of the blue. I held my breath for several seconds as I heard the words " Whoooo areeeeee yaaa talkinggg tooooooo on the phoaneeeeeeee ??" I couldn't really identify the accent but guessed it to be a little Louisiana-ish. The girl softly said- No one!! and the other voice didn't seem to believe it for I heard thuds again.

I was about to start thinking again when the girl's voice thrusted me back into reality. I hoped to god that she would let me help her but there wasn't much I could really do. So all I asked her was " Is it safe for you to talk to me now?" She told me what I had been dreading- "NO". So I asked her to call back when she could, when it was safe for her and the baby.

I gingerly replaced the receiver on its cradle and looked out through the window. It was a beautiful day, a little chilly perhaps but I saw people going about their jobs, cars zipping through , kids playing in the backyard and here was a Girl Tormented By Words. Somehow, that left me feeling mildly melancholic and not quite understanding the dubious ways in which the human mind works! I laid back my head, closed my eyes and all my mind was set on doing was to put a face to the 19-ish who had called. The left side of my brain failed me miserably and I just hoped she would call back soon.

"A tough one uhn!?" asked my colleague and all I could do was nod, still eyes closed. While still in the process of wondering how to unload the rather eternal burden, a vague familiarity beckoned at us...

The dreaded TRING TRING -- I put on the cloak of never-let-the-situation-get-to-U types, took a deep breath and spoke into the receiver " Good morning, how can I help you?"