Moment of Truth

Chapter 3: Calls

It was a week before I got the call I was waiting for. It came on a sunny afternoon. I didn't recognize the phone number but I picked it up regardless. I wasn't going to recognize any of these Canadian numbers for a while anyways.

"Hello," I speak into my phone.

"Hello there, is this Marie Vincent?" The person on the other side responds.

"This is her. But my last name is pronounced Vincent-ay."

"My apologies. Well I am Brian Orser. I am the head figure skating coach at the Toronto Cricket Club and my receptionist has informed me that you were interested in the position of being our translator. Is that correct?"

"Yes, that is correct."

"Excellent. And what languages do you know?"

"I can speak fluently in Tagalog, English, and Japanese."

"That's great! We need someone who can speak Japanese for one of my trainees. He comes from Japan. Is there any way you can stop by tomorrow morning to meet my skater?"

"I am available to do so."

"Great. Come by at 7 am. That's when most of my kids show up. Also, please bring a resume. It's for administrative purposes. By the way, how old are you?"

"I am 22 years old."

"Perfect. I'll see you tomorrow then."

"I'll see you tomorrow. Have a nice day, Mr. Orser."

"You too, Marie."

We both hang up the phone. I stare at my phone for a little bit. I'm very excited. To be getting a job in translating is a great feat as I am new to this country and it's hard to just start your career so soon and so fast. And I'll probably need to travel around since figure skaters have to travel all around the world for their competitions. It'll work perfectly with school as well as I am only taking online classes at the moment. I know I can handle all of this if I get the job.

I leave my room and head downstairs to the kitchen. I walk in to see my parents getting ready to leave for work. They both work long shifts at the hospitals. It's tough, but they don't mind. They want to work hard to live a better life here.

"Hi nanay*, hi tatay*," I greet them as I grab an apple from the dinner table.

"Anak*, have you eaten lunch yet?" My mom asks me as I begin to eat the apple.

"No..."

"Baba*, you need to eat lunch first," my dad says to me as he takes away the apple from my hand.

"Okay, I'll eat lunch," I grumble as I search around the kitchen for some food. I see that my mom has cooked adobo*. So I put some on top of a plate of rice. I sit down at the dinner table and begin to eat.

"Anak," my mom calls to me as she packs my dad's and her baon* for work. "Did you ever get a call for that translating job?"

"I just did, upstairs. They want me to come in tomorrow morning to meet the skater who needs translating for."

"Well that's good. What time are you going there?"

"I need to be there by 7 am."

"That's early. Will you be okay to go there by yourself?"

"Yes, ma. It's just down the street. I'll be fine.

"Okay. Just making sure. Hopefully you'll get the job. It would be nice for you to have a job so we don't have to give you an allowance anymore."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, shouldn't you be heading out soon?"

My mom glances at the clock in the kitchen. "Oh! You're right. Daddy, let's go! It's almost time for work."

"I'm coming, I'm coming," my dad says as he walks back into the kitchen.

My mom hands him his lunch bag and he kisses her as a form of thanks. He comes over and kisses my head since I'm still eating.

"Be good while we're gone, okay?" My dad says as he leaves the kitchen.

"Okay, tatay!" I respond pulling my fork out of my mouth.

"Your sister is still at work and baba is still taking a nap. Make sure to wake him up soon so he doesn't throw off his sleeping schedule. He needs it in order for when school starts next week," my mom says as she leaves the kitchen. She also gives me a kiss on the head. "We'll see you tomorrow!"

"Okay, ma. Bye guys!"

"Bye anak," my parents call out as they leave.

As they leave I finish up eating. I go over the living room once I'm done and watch some tv. We only have one tv in the house and it's in the living room. I turn it to the Canadian Disney Channel and just leave it there. I begin to think about the translator job. It'll be a great opportunity for me and I can't wait to see who I'll be translating for. It's a Japanese figure skater for sure, but I'm not really familiar with figure skaters. Except for Michael Christian Martinez. But that's mostly because we hail from the same country. Well, tomorrow I will find out. That'll sure be interesting.

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Foreign words:
*nanay: mother
*tatay: father
*anak: child
*baba: young child
*adobo: a Filipino meat dish made with soy sauce and vinegar
*baon: lunch