by Lia Tjokro

How is the weather?” Father asked as we began our weekly video call.

”It is beautiful today!” I answered.

A pause from the other end, I heard laughter in the background.

From the phone screen, I stared at the ceiling of our family home across the ocean from here. “Have you had lunch?” my question competed with the laughter.

“Yes. Noodles.”

More ceiling, more laughter.

Father mumbled don’t sleep too late before saying goodbye.

I did not see him again today, I failed to compete with the comedy TV.

He did not bother to lift his phone from the table

Lia Tjokro is a Chinese-Indonesian writer. She writes poems, novels, short stories in English and Indonesian. Her short stories have appeared in Porch Literary Magazine, Kitaab, and she has published one novel in Indonesian. Her IG is februalia1. She has lived in Singapore and the US before, and currently she lives in the Netherlands with her husband and son.