Page 61 of Catching Fire

He made it out the other side of town, into the long rolling landscape between Lincoln and Omaha. The home stretch. He could pull right into the airport from the freeway.

Kalan was looking over his shoulder and merging when his phone rang.

His head whipped back and forth, checking for cars and for the caller.

Deja.

He hit the green dot on his phone harder than necessary. “Hey! What’s the news?”

“What’s going on, K? There is no news.”

He almost hit the brakes. Deja sounded like he was being crazy. “What? You emailed me.”

“Bro, I haven’t emailed you in a month. You’ve got Adia calling me repeatedly until I stepped out of my meeting to call you.”

What?

He told her what he’d told Adia. “You emailed me that mom had another heart attack.”

“No, I didn’t. Mom is fine.”

Just as she said it, his phone buzzed with a message to both him and Deja. –Mom is fine.

Adia must have called to check on their mother directly, because this was immediately followed by –K is batshit. No idea what he’s talking about.

“Mom is fine?” He asked.

“Yeah,” Deja managed to have the same tone as Adia’s message did. “Sorry you had a scare, but I have to get back to my meeting.”

He felt bad now that he’d pulled her out of her work. “You’re not missing anything?”

“No, because I’m running this show. Everyone’s waiting on me and I’m waiting on you.” She offered only the smallest of pauses. “You good?”

“If Mom’s good, I’m good. Sorry sis!” But she was already gone.

He was so confused.

He let the car follow along with traffic until he found an exit with a gas station and he pulled in. Had he misread the email?

Kalan parked the car and started tapping on the damn small phone again. No. He hadn’t misread it. There it was. Then he frowned.

It didn’t say “Mom hadanotherheart attack,” it said “Mom had a heart attack.” Was it …?

He tapped at the phone, pulling up a search and looking for the three-year old email from Deja. Kalan blinked.

He’d gotten the exact same email again.

Flipping back and forth he checked three times. It was the same one.

But how?

He rested his head against the headrest and closed his eyes. He needed to get his head on straight. It had certainly been spun round today by a stupid email glitch.

Huffing into the empty space of the car, Kalan watched as one of the people walking by tipped his head to check whether the strange man just sitting in his car was okay. He guessed he was okay.

As long as Mom was okay, he was good.

He tapped out a message to his sisters, thanking them both for taking the time to straighten him out. And for saving him the last minute airfare to Chicago over nothing.

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