“Bali Longboard Club. How can I help you?”
“Bali Longboarding Club, how can I help you?”
Her voice is high pitched yet casual. She has been out all night in Seminyak, and now sits at a cafe on Jawala Uluwatu and waits all day for her cheap cell phone to ring.
“Yes, hi there. I’m calling to inquire about membership.”
“There is no membership,” she says routinely. In front of her is a plate of cold french fries and a fresh cup of coffee. With her left hand she plays with the damp french fries while holding the phone in her right hand. She dips a fat, oddly sized fry into a small lumpy pool of ketchup and bites off the end with ketchup on it.
“Well then, what is required to be a part of the club?”
“Nothing,” she says. The french fries are mushier today, she thinks. When they are crispy it reminds her of home.
There is a long pause on the other end of the phone, and finally: “Then what do you do?” the man asks.
“We are The Bali Longboarding Club, established in 2012. We are currently the oldest surviving longboard club in Bali.”
“How much?”
“How much for what?”
“How much to be a member?”
“There is no membership, sir.”
“Then what the hell are we doing?”
“We are talking on the phone sir.”
She is respectful, even flattering at times.
What if she asked them to make the fries crispy? she wonders. And sliced thin. Would it be considered rude to ask that?
She puts her finger up to her mouth and licks a spot of tomato sauce off her index finger. The sauce tastes so different here, she thinks. So tomatoey.
A car drives by playing music loudly. A thick bass line and American lyrics. “Nigga I’m about my business/checkin niggas off you would think i had a hit list/bitches.”
The three other people at the cafe turn to look at the car as well. They are white, the people in the cafe. The young man driving the car looks local. Balinese. In the passenger seat is a young, skinny, long haired light skinned Asian girl with a gold round hoop earring in her nose.
“Are you married?” the voice on the other end of the phone asks.
“Yes,” she answers.
“You are lying.”
“Bali Longboarding Club, how can I help you?” she repeats professionally.
