Rosa, 79 · Manila, Philippines
Says yes to things she didn’t hear.
She misses about a third of what's said on the phone and has stopped asking people to repeat themselves, because she can hear them getting impatient. So she says yes.
Listen, and read along
Tap any line to jump to it. Side calls — when Zika phones someone for her — are indented.
The short versionRosa, Manila
- 0:49(phone set down on a wooden table, footsteps, a drawer opening)
The short version joins two moments of the call. — 5.9 minutes, with nothing taken out.
Before the call
The scene
Ten past six on a Monday evening in Project 4, Quezon City. It's habagat season, and heavy rain is drumming on the corrugated roof over the back kitchen. A teleserye is on the TV in the sala with the volume up, because Rosa likes it loud. She has a hearing aid in her left ear. The right one is in its case in the drawer, where it usually is. She picks up on the landline in the hallway, cheerful, and a bit louder than she needs to be. She lost her husband Tonyo four years ago. Her daughter Liza is a nurse in Dubai. Rosa misses about a third of what's said on the phone and covers it with "yes, yes". She'd rather agree than admit she didn't catch it. Today the clinic has finally offered a date for her check-up with Dr Santos.
After the call
What Liza got, in Dubai
Rosa · today’s call
for LizaCheerful. She said yes to things she hadn't heard twice, so I checked each one. Put her second hearing aid in partway through, then heard fine.
Booked: Dr Santos, Thursday 1 Oct, 9:30am. Fasting from midnight for a blood test. She wants to know if coffee's allowed, and I'll ask the clinic.
About this recording: Rosa and everyone on this call are fictional, and every voice is synthetic, designed from a written description rather than copied from a real person. The call was built from our specification and rendered through a simulated telephone line. The timings are enforced by the renderer: it fails if Zika talks over anyone or ends the call itself.
Next callFlorence, Manchester: The post piles up on the hall table.