I didn't give my phone up because I knew I was going to be blocked in by other people. I was worried that I'd have an incoming call or text saying that my uncle had gotten worse or had died.

I'd be okay delaying good news, for some reason. Maybe because it feels less urgent to share with my mother even though she can't do anything either way. She likes my uncle and his wife, but they're the only ones on that side of the family who would talk to her. Well, I doubt my cousins have anything against her, but they've only met her in passing. If they know her name, I'd be surprised.

I think, also, bad news might have made me want to drag Scott and Cordelia off to the hospital before going home. It's about the same distance to get there from Fenton as to get back to Ann Arbor and then an additional forty minutes to get home from the hospital.

Somehow, keeping the phone in my pocket also felt like some sort of ward against getting bad news. That is, I could so I wouldn't. Superstition at its best.