They Can Hear Your Smile

2024 · 12 min · Science Fiction · Drama

The eponymous debt collection call center’s marketing slogan is taken to its extreme, depersonalized operators are roused from their lethargy by unbridled laughter. Not mockery, but pure, contagious laughter at the tragicomedy of trapped debtors, its echo tearing apart the operator’s apathy and the walls of the claustrophobic open-plan office.