peoplewatching

Sometimes body language can betray you and how you want others to perceive you.
Today I saw someone taking a phonecall. Based on their conversation, I think it was a relative from her hometown (somewhere in Sulawesi, based on her accent and the slangs she used). The relative, I concluded, was someone at least 1 generation older. Maybe an aunt.
At first the conversation was cheerful, updating about recent events in her life and so on. This person had her back to me, but the tone of her voice suggested she was smiling during that conversation.
Suddenly there was a long silence (I think the person on the other end was speaking)…and I saw how the recipients’ shoulders slowly sank. Her head hung low. Her voice became smaller and shaky.
I wonder what was said that made her seem so defeated.
At the end of the conversation, she wiped a little tear at the corner of one eye, shook her hair and walked back to her family, head up high. She went back to her loud cheerful mode as if nothing happened.
Maybe she thought no one saw it. I did.