The Case of the Missing 'Please' - Study Abroad in America Edition

I had planned to call home to Japan at least once while studying abroad.
To do that, I needed to use a "collect call," which required speaking to an operator.


With mobile phones so common now,
they might not be used much anymore.

Regardless, the biggest hurdle was "speaking."
For the first two weeks after arriving in America, there was no way I felt I could talk to an operator.


The third week.


I felt like I could hold a basic English conversation... I think.
(Should I try a collect call?)

It had been a little over two weeks since I left Japan.
I wanted to tell my family how things were going here.


(But still...)

My anxiety.
Whenever my English didn't get through,
I had been getting by with gestures.


A phone call where I couldn't see the other person's face was nothing but terrifying.

(I'm too nervous...)
(Maybe I'll just do it another time.)



＿＿＿＿A few days later.

I made up my mind and stood in front of the phone.

After all, I'd be going home soon.
If I didn't do it now, I felt like I'd go back to Japan without ever having done it.


An American public phone.

It was completely different from the public phones I saw in Japan.
A silver phone with a dull shine and black buttons.
It was big, and somehow angular.


I picked up the receiver of what felt like a tough-looking phone.



“...〇△〇×...”


(Whoa, oh no, that's fast!)

I couldn't catch what they were saying.

For now,
if I just say "collect call" and "Japan,"
it should work out somehow.

"Collect call, please."
"Japan."


“OK! ...〇△〇×”




......RRRRR

(Ohhh!! It went through!)



Click
"Hello, Rokuneko residence."


Apparently, my mother panicked at this moment.
She answered the phone as she always did,
only for a foreigner to start speaking in English.


Of course, my mother couldn't speak English either.

Although I had said, "I'll call you from America,"
nearly three weeks had passed.
It seemed she had completely let her guard down.


Even when she realized halfway through that it was an international call,
(What was I supposed to say? What was it again??)
Rokuneko's mother was in a total panic.

Operator: "...〇△〇×, please."

Mom: "Please! Please!"

The operator wouldn't connect the call.

Perhaps the "Please" that each of them had in mind
was missing in translation.


My mother desperately repeated "Please."


(...Ah!) "Yes!"
When my mother said that, they finally connected us.


Our first parent-child conversation in a while.


Rather than talking about life in America,
the story of "I kept saying please, but they wouldn't connect me" was the longest part of that collect call.

Study Abroad in America Episode
▶ "Any experience? How many times?" We froze at the immigration card