My mother’s voicemail lasted eight seconds

Dear Delyara, I work the night shift at a call center answering complaints from people in California. At 2:00 a.m., during my break, I listened to a voicemail from my mother. She said, “You sound tired lately. Eat something warm.” Then she cleared her throat, said goodbye, and hung up. Eight seconds. I replayed it twelve times beside the vending machines. My mother lives four hours away, and I have not visited in seven months because I always need another shift, another payment, another excuse. She never asks when I am coming home anymore. She just reminds me to eat. The strange thing is, I spend nine hours every night pretending to care that someone’s package arrived late or their refund was wrong, using a cheerful English name that is not mine, while the person who actually loves me has learned to fit her concern into eight seconds so she will not burden me. I bought instant noodles from the vending machine and added too much hot water. They tasted like nothing. I still finished every bite because she had told me to eat something warm.