Night Phone Calls

from Peceli

Night phone calls

Awakened from sleep
It is 11.30 p.m.
Mike from Melbourne says
How are you? What?
Can you give me a phone number?
A phone number in Fiji?
The top police man in Fiji. What?
They’ll all be asleep in Fiji now.
It’s 1.30 a.m. over there.
Mike sounds a bit drunk.
Please, give me the Suva number.
You can only ring in the daytime.
What’s the problem anyway?
I have a friend sitting here
who wants to talk with him.
Then I heard the word, ‘Taki!’
Anyway, I scrabble around to find the book
In the dark, the light won’t work
I open the book, without my glasses.
Find the number after a few minutes.
Hello Mike. No answer.
Mike has gone.

The phone rings loudly
I am awakened suddenly, worried
As it is 4.30 a.m. only!
A woman’s voice.
Hello, how are you?
She’s bright, it’s 6.30 a.m. to her in Suva.
A long distant call.
She said she tried to contact us
Many times. Oh, the dial-up!
We were on the internet.
She’s from Nabalebale village.
She tells me her father has had a stroke,
Is in Suva hospital
Brought down from Labasa.
She talks of other things
And the suitcase we sent
By the Captain Cook three months ago.
Where is it?
I search for another phone number in Suva,
Find it, while she waits.
I read out the number,
Goodbye, and good luck.