Page 56 of Under Pressure

“No worries,” Sean said. What was an elbow to the kidney compared to having his heart tromped over?

“Jonah’s a professional extreme sportsman with a hit show on YouTube,” Blue said. “His sponsors got it for him.”

“What’s your show called?” Johnny asked.

“X-Games Xtreme,” Jonah said.

Johnny lifted a butt cheek and carefully extracted his phone. Within seconds, he was doing a search. “Wow, you have over a million subscribers. That’s impressive.” He turned on a video. “Whoa!” He turned his phone to Axel. “You seeing this?”

And now he’d for sure lost Johnny.

Jonah turned to Sean. “My phone’s waterproof. I bet you have a waterproof phone.”

Sean nodded. He didn’t brag about it, though. In his world, it was a necessity. Admittedly, his was nowhere near as fancy as Jonah’s.

“It’s waterproof?” Dad asked.

“Those don’t work,” Johnny said and finished watching a video. “They’re water resistant but not submersible.”

Jonah’s brows shot up. “You think?”

Johnny put his phone on the coffee table. “Who’s going to throw their phone in some water to test it?”

Jonah stood, lifting Blue off his lap as he went. He reached across the coffee table and dropped his phone in Nonna’s crystal pitcher.

The room went silent.

“Call it,” Jonah said.

“Jonah!” Blue snapped.

“Call it,” Jonah repeated.

Johnny picked up his phone and Jonah rattled off the number. Jonah’s phone started ringing from inside the glass of water. Little bubbles drifted up from the sides.

“See,” Jonah said. “It’s part of the reason I requested it. We occasionally do water stunts, and it’s nice to not have to worry about it.”

“You making a lot of underwater calls?” Axel asked.

Blue laughed.

The ringing abruptly died off, and every phone in the room, including Jonah’s in the water, had the emergency alert go off. Long low-pitched whines, coming one after the other.

“What is that?” Mom asked.

Sean whipped his phone from his pocket just as everyone else did. On his home screen, it read:

Emergency Alert

National Weather Service: A HURRICANE WARNING is in effect for this area for dangerous and damaging winds. This warning is issued up to 36 hours before hazardous conditions begin. Urgently complete efforts to protect life and property. Have food, water, cash, fuel, and medications for 3+ days. FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS FROM LOCAL OFFICIALS.

One after the other, the alarm started to turn off as each person in the room looked at their phones. It was only seconds after the alarm went off that an urgent text came through on Sean’s phone.

He stood up and moved closer to the piano, and out of the way of possible prying eyes.

Gray: Are you seeing this?

Sean: Yes.

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