Page 60 of Catching Fire

He’d told Seline he would show up at her house this afternoon after her meeting. But he was in no shape to message her with his news, he thought as he pulled a quick lane change and swerved around a car that was probably going a respectable speed. His lead foot was going to get him pulled over, and his terror about his mother wouldn’t play well when he was asked for his license. Kalan couldn’t afford to be stopped, so he slowed down.

It was so hard to do.

He should message Seline. She’d likely still be in her meeting, but she’d see it when she got out.

He wanted to call his mother, but that would be stupid. His mother was in the hospital. Unless Deja or Adia had Mom’s phone in hand and answered it, it would go to voice mail. He needed to call his sisters.

A blast from a nearby horn might or might not have been meant for him, but it was a signal that his speed had crept up too high again. Kalan lifted his foot from the pedal and forced a deep breath. It didn’t work. Though he tried, his lungs simply wouldn’t expand all the way.

He tried telling himself it wasn’thismother, it was just someone else’s mother. He was fantastic with other people’s emergencies … his own? Clearly, not so much.

It took another twenty minutes just to get to the edge of Lincoln. There was an airport here, but the flights to Chicago that he might take today were out of Omaha. He had to keep going. His only other option was to drive to Chicago, and that would take much much longer.

As he passed the business tower where he and Seline had gotten stuck in the elevator together, traffic came to a near standstill.

He huffed out a breath, smacking his steering wheel. He was mad at the commuters, didn’t they understand that he didn’t need a drive through meal, or just to run an errand? He was facing a real emergency.

But the stop meant he could use his phone finally. With his foot heavy on the brake, he pulled up the scroll log to call Deja first. Seline would understand if she didn’t get a message from him. But his sister needed to know he’d gotten her email.

He frowned.

Behind him, a horn honked, and he jerked his head up to realize the light had changed. Not that he got that far, just one more block before he was stopped by the next light. He looked at the phone again.

There were no calls from Deja. None from Adia either. But the email said she’d been trying to reach him …

Maybe he had no calls logged because the phone had glitched and not even received the signal. He scrolled through his contacts, hitting the delicate button with a thumb that felt too fat for the job. Deja’s line rang and rang and when her voicemail finally came on, he hung up.

Was Mom already in surgery?

He pulled up his email again, checking the time stamp. It had come in just before he’d seen it. Maybe by about twenty minutes. Something else had dinged on his phone and he’d checked all his notifications, so he wasn’t that far behind.

Kalan pulled another block forward with the next light, but this one was going to change faster. He was further back from the intersection, but he should make it through. He punched the button for Adia and his youngest sister answered with surprise.

“Hey, K! Good to hear from you—”

“How’s mom?” He’d cut her off which wasn’t appropriate, but right now he didn’t care.

“I don’t know …” There was a hint of question at the end of her sentence. And Kalan dove into the space even as he looked up at the light and watched the car in front of him pull forward. He tacked onto the sedan’s bumper and inched forward.

“Is she in surgery?”

“Why would she be in surgery?” Adia only sounded confused. “What are you talking about?”

“Deja didn’t get in touch with you?” His tone was too demanding, but he was trying not to have a heart attack of his own and find some way to get to Chicago. Had he moved too far away from his family? Maybe he had.

“About what?” Clearly, Adia hadn’t heard from Deja yet.

“She emailed me that mom had another heart attack.”

“When?” At least now, Adia was as concerned as he was. It felt both awful and comforting.

“I just got the email about thirty minutes ago? But I don’t know when she had it.” He huffed out a breath, wanting to explain that he wasn’t mad at his sister but at everything else. “I’m in traffic trying to get to the airport.”

“Let me call Deja and get back to you.” With that, Adia, the youngest and ever the go-getter, promptly hung up.

Frowning at the phone, Kalan thought about swearing at it and at her for a moment. But he quickly realized that she’d made the smart move. He’d told her he was driving. She would take care of it. Adia could take care of anything.

His mother had raised three very capable adults.

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