Tuvalu Read Online Free PDF Page B

we moved towards the counter to pay.
    â€˜What were you doing?’
    â€˜Teaching English.’ We handed over the correct change and I followed Tilly outside. The elderly woman was still waiting by the ambulance for the firemen to return.
    â€˜So why didn’t they renew your contract?’
    I leant against a warm brick wall. Winter had seemingly let up overnight; a day earlier it had been possible to determine the point at which my breath began to curl upwards, but now it was invisible. Around us people were wearing T-shirts.
    â€˜Who can say? Performance, maybe. I thought the school was a scam.’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜I don’t know. Most of the students I only taught once. It was always one on one. A student would arrive, take a seat in my little green booth, perform a rote-learnt self-introduction, then show me what page they were up to in the company text. I never saw them again after that. The company discouraged it. They liked to be able to drop students in on whichever teachers were free. It was like a sweatshop that way, only they made a selling point of it. “Learn from the entire English world.” They charged extra for variety but there was no continuity.’
    â€˜How many lessons a day?’
    â€˜Me? Twelve, with five minutes off between each.’
    â€˜Ouch.’
    We both stared into a clear, blue sky. Despite my initial reluctance I kept talking. ‘Leaving my subsidised apartment wasn’t much fun. I’d become pretty attached to that whole area, even though it was way out in Chiba. I knew where everything was: the supermarket, the convenience store, the chemist, the dry cleaners. I’d memorised them—not the Japanese characters, but cartoons painted on a window or a certain type of door handle. You know how that works. Now I’m lost again.’
    â€˜Do you have a new job?’
    â€˜Not yet. I’ve launched a sort of employment campaign.’
    The two firemen exited the brown building. They were at either end of the stretcher, which now had an old man lying on it. The section of stretcher beneath his head had been tilted upwards and he stared into the ambulance. He was wearing a transparent ventilation mask and looked sleepy. The elderly woman took his hand, then released it, standing back to let the firemen load him in. She looked calm, like maybe this happened a lot.
    â€˜Heart attack?’ I asked.
    Tilly shrugged. ‘They’ll have to say goodbye soon, though. He should just get on and die.’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜Because long goodbyes are awful.’
    We walked back towards the hostel but decided to keep on going; something about the place felt uninviting. Tilly walked fast with her long, white, freckled arms swinging ahead of her.
    â€˜You walk with one foot sticking out, you know,’ she said, turning back to watch me.
    â€˜I know.’
    â€˜It looks funny but I like it.’
    I tried to straighten the offending foot but it felt odd. Tilly copied my walk and acquired such a stupidly exaggerated gait I had to laugh. She would not stop mimicking me.
    â€˜So,’ she said, shunting herself along, ‘the old hostel must be a change from your apartment?’
    â€˜Quit it.’
    â€˜Quit what?’ she asked, affecting a look of ignorance.
    â€˜You know what.’
    â€˜Fine. I can’t do it right anyway.’
    She pulled her foot in, grinning.
    â€˜And since you’re interested,’ I said, ‘it’s not that bad.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜The hostel.’
    â€˜Oh.’ She pointed at my foot. ‘I thought you meant having feet that go different ways.’
    â€˜Except for the stray cats—the way they hang round.’
    Tilly frowned. ‘I happen to like the cats.’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜I just like cats, I guess. Any sort. I tried breeding them for a while.’
    â€˜Here in Japan?’
    â€˜No, back on the farm.’
    â€˜You come from