Page 37 of The Sailor in Polynesia
I sighed.
“Doug, I’m here. There’s a—”
“Oh, there you are.”
“—lag. It’ll take a few minutes—”
“Okay, I can hear you now.”
I snapped my mouth shut and waited.
“Mia?”
“Yes, I’m here.”
Come on, Doug.
“Okay, I can hear you now. Can you hear me?”
“Yes, Doug, I can hear you.”
Three seconds.
“Where are you, baby sister?”
“Fakarava.”
Three seconds.
“Where is that? Are you near Tahiti?”
“Close.”
Three seconds.
“Good, good. I’m sure it’s beautiful.”
“It is really nice out—”
“Listen, Mia, I’ve got some bad news— What?”
I rolled my eyes and gritted my teeth.
“What’s the bad news?”Couldn’t we have texted?
“Grandma passed.”
And just like that my frustration melted away, shock hitting my heart. “Oh no.” Jonas looked up at the change of tone in my voice. I collapsed onto the bench next to me and covered my face with my hand. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jonas approach me, and the weight of his hand rested on my shoulder, squeezing me in concern.
“Mia, this connection is terrible. Did you get that? Grandma died?”
“Yeah—yeah, I did.”
“I’ll email you some details, okay? Check your email tonight.”
“Will do. Thanks for ca—”
“Gotta go. Love you, Mia.”
