Rapture

INTERIOR: TELEPHONE COMPANY INFORMATION OFFICE. DAY. We move slowly through a crowded office. A hundred information operators in booths. SHARON works at a computer terminal. Close on her. She's on a kind of autopilot as she does her job, and the people talking to her hear so little personality that her humanity barely registers. That she might have a beauty that is becoming hollow, or a private life that would astonish them -- this, no one thinks about. She watches the clock. Five minutes to six. SHARON Please hold for the number. Operator 134, what city please? (Pause, as she types in the name.) Is that a business or residence? Please hold for the number. (Pause.) Operator 134. What city please? (Pause.) How do you spell that? The clock. Two minutes to six. SHARON (pause) Please hold for the number. (Pause.) Operator 134. What city please? (Pause.) Is that a business or residence? (Pause.) Please hold for the number. Pause. Behind her, a woman, another OPERATOR, waits for the chair. Six o'clock. SHARON gets up. The other OPERATOR takes her place and takes her headphones. SHARON starts to stand as she begins the next sentence. Pause. SHARON Operator 134. Is that a business or residence? ... And the other OPERATOR takes her headset and completes the number as SHARON leaves her post. OPERATOR Please hold for the number. SHARON walks away. Cut to: EXTERIOR: STREET. NIGHT. And now we see her sitting in the back of a Jaguar convertible. VIC is driving the car.