The telephone rang twice and she hit the receive button. At once the vision of her father sprang to life on the miniscreen.
“Hello Ah Jin, how lovely to see you…” the mid-west tone of the unsmiling familiar face spoke brightly on seeing her face before him.
“Daddy!” she cried excitedly back “Wh…”
“Don’t interrupt me, Ah Jin.” He paused looking decidedly irritated, then resumed his smile. “I was about to say, ‘How lovely to see you today. How is your mother?’”
“Sorry, Daddy,” came her slightly crestfallen apology. “It’s good to… I mean, Mummy is doing well. She is out shopping for dinner.”
“Oh dear, that’s a pity. I would very much have liked to talk with her right now. I have something important to discuss with both of you. When she gets back you must tell her to call me.”
“I will do that, Daddy” she continued in her most serious obedient tone. Then she immediately changed back into the excited eight-year old she was, “When will you be coming home? Are you on your way?”
“That’s what I want to talk with you about. Well, I’ll wait for your mother to call me. However,” he continued checking his Rolex, “I have a conference call at 6 your time… so make sure she phones before then.”
He paused again, which he considered as an appropriate prompt for her to finish their brief communication. Sensing this she continued, firing off her words as a panicked Gatling gun.
“Daddy I have worked so hard at school. I have done all my homework in all my subjects and for test preparation and my scores are the best in the class, in school. My poem, you know the one you really liked, is being printed in the school magazine. And my Wing Chun teacher has moved me up because I have learnt so much. I did really well in the piano exam too and the erhu teacher…
“Thank you, Ah Jin, that is enough for now. I will speak to you both later.”
At that the screen went dark. She stood staring at it, her mouth still open from the last unfinished sentence. Then she told herself that she had at least told him what she needed to tell him and he would remember it and congratulate her later when her mother phoned. The fact that neither occurred that night was a wound to her, another wound upon the wounds as far back as she could remember. Her mother arrived back just after 6 and tried to call every 15 minutes, but he did not respond until nearly midnight. Through the walls her mother could be heard talking softly and privately and even eavesdropping through the door Ah Jin heard no mention made of her. There were lots of pauses. Then the conversation stopped abruptly and she detected a strange muffled noise like laughter. She wanted to go in and see what had been so funny, but on touching the door handle realised it was not laughter but crying she had heard. Fearful of seeing her mother in a distressed state she returned to her room and tried to sleep. The noise of her mother’s broken sobs repeated in her mind and continued well into the night: would she be able to ask what had happened in the morning?
She was spared that agony, for her mother left the apartment long before Ah Jin’s 5:30 alarm had sounded.
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