Newly accessioned
NLL–2026.015
Nadia Luong Living Library
The Favor Became the Arrangement
Nadia Luong
An answered call becomes a calendar filled with other people’s needs.
The phone rang.
I answered
before the second ring.
I was good at that.
Someone needed a ride.
A form filled out.
A deadline met.
A problem beginning with
Can you—
and somehow
ending in my hands.
I liked being
the one they called.
The one who knew
which door to open,
which number to dial,
which thread to pull
until the knot gave way.
My calendar filled
with rides, dinners moved,
and appointments
that were not mine.
I could turn the pages
and find everyone I loved
written somewhere.
What I could not find
was me.
At first,
they asked.
Then the questions
grew shorter.
Then they stopped
being questions.
A problem arrived
with my name
already attached.
A plan was made
before anyone checked
if I was free.
The favor became
the responsibility.
The exception became
the arrangement.
My dependability
no longer looked
like something I gave.
It looked like something
that was simply there.
Like the light
when someone flipped
the switch.
Like the call
that went through.
No one asks
what keeps a thing running
while it is still running.
I kept swallowing the no
already waiting
in my mouth.
I called it kindness.
I called it loyalty.
I did not call it
what it was:
a life organized
around being available.
When I finally
began to say no,
they asked
what had changed.
As though the change
was the refusal,
and not all the years
that came before it.
Sometimes
the phone rings now.
I see the name.
My hand moves
toward the glass,
then stops.
The screen glows
in the dim room.
I let the silence
remain mine.
The phone keeps ringing.
The world
does not end.
Whatever happens next
waits, unclaimed,
between the ringing
and my hand.
After reading the poem
An answered call becomes a calendar filled with other people’s needs. As favors turn into expectations, the speaker recognizes how generosity has become an unspoken obligation—and pauses before answering again.
Distinction pairs
A favor≠A permanent obligation
Dependability≠Unlimited availability
Saying no≠Withdrawing love
Intellectual value
The poem examines how freely offered care can become an assumed duty. Its shift from automatic availability to a deliberate pause invites reflection on invisible labor, boundaries, and the freedom to choose.
© Nadia Luong · All rights reserved
NLL–2026.015
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