Her Father Said Yes. She Said No.
“You sound reasonable. Couldn't you persuade her?”
On the other end of the phone, the shop owner lowered his voice. Emi hesitated.
She was a telephone relay operator, connecting the shop owner with Nao, the furniture restorer he had hired. Nao was deaf. She typed what she wanted to say; Emi read it aloud, then typed the shop owner's replies back to her.
Now he wanted Emi to persuade Nao to change her mind.
The repair was a display cabinet. He needed it by Friday. Nao had told him it would be ready on Monday.
Her father had promised Friday.
He had retired and handed the workshop over to her, but he still dropped in. When an old customer called, he sometimes answered as though the business were still his. That was how he had agreed to this repair, before Nao had even examined the cabinet.
The frame was badly damaged. She couldn't fix it by Friday.
She had made this call to explain. So far, they were getting nowhere.
“Your father always found a way,” the shop owner had said.
Nao's reply had appeared on Emi's screen.
“Sometimes that meant I worked through the night. I can't do that this time.”
Emi had read it out. That was when he began appealing to her instead.
“I've been a customer for years. Can't you put in a word?”
Emi didn't answer. She typed his words for Nao.
“The shop reopens on Friday. That cabinet is the first thing people will see when they walk in.”
She passed that on too.
Emi understood why he was worried. But she couldn't agree to a deadline for Nao.
“I understand you need it on Friday,” Nao wrote. “I can't finish it by then.”
Emi read the message as it stood.
The shop owner sighed.
“Then check with your father.”
“I'm the one doing the repair.”
When Emi spoke Nao's answer, the line went quiet.
She waited.
“Look, just get her to agree to Friday. I'll work out the details with her dad.”
Emi nearly spoke.
Nao had understood him. This wasn't a misunderstanding, or something that needed explaining more clearly. She was saying she couldn't do it.
But that was Emi's answer, not Nao's.
She finished typing and waited.
“Would you like to book the repair for Monday?”
Emi asked the question.
“Monday's too late.”
After reading his reply, Nao sent another message.
“Then I'll have to turn the job down. I'm sorry I can't have it ready for your reopening.”
Emi read it aloud, keeping the refusal clear. The apology didn't mean Nao was offering to reconsider.
“You're really turning it down?”
Nao typed, “Yes.”
“Yes,” Emi said.
They exchanged a brief goodbye, and the call ended.
Back in the workshop, Nao sat looking at the screen.
Usually her father answered, then told her afterward, “I've said you'll do it.”
The shop owner might never ask her to repair anything again. That worried her.
But she was the one who would have to do the work.
She thought about what she would say to her father when she got home.
Nao had lost a job.
Still, this time she had made the decision herself.
She would tell her father: the next time someone called about a repair, he needed to ask her before giving them an answer.
The real work behind the story
A public service for relayed calls.
Japan's telephone relay service is described as public infrastructure. An operator interprets between a user's signing or text and the other person's speech.
Sources: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, The Telecommunications Relay Service as Public Infrastructure; The Nippon Foundation Telecommunications Relay Service, About the Service
Convey the words. Don't negotiate for the caller.
The service's terms say operators interpret each party's words as expressed. They cannot ask questions, negotiate or make arrangements on a user's behalf.
Source: The Nippon Foundation Telecommunications Relay Service, Article 9: Service Content
Funding comes from contributions by telephone providers.
According to the service provider, the service is funded through grants drawn from telephone providers' contributions. Many telephone providers pass that cost on to their customers as a telephone relay service fee.
Source: The Nippon Foundation Telecommunications Relay Service, About the Service
The story is fiction. All characters, companies and events in it are invented. “The real work behind the story” is based on the sources linked above.