Page 143 of Smoke and Fire
Bastian:I hope so.
Dahlia:Will you have service?
Bastian:Hard to tell. I’ll let you know.
Dahlia:I’ll be here.
Just to punctuate the point, I sent three appropriately placed GIFs of firefighters, mountain landscapes, and a woman typing on her computer. A minute later, my phone buzzed against my leg again. I glanced down to see another text message.
Bastian:Sorry, last thing. If you need them, the passwords are saved in a document on the computer.
Dahlia:Got it. Thanks!
I waited another minute, but nothing more came.
With only the quiet swish of the wind in the forest outside the RV, I clicked through his computer and brought up the emails.
He hadn’t told me a legitimate frame of reference for how many emails to expect per day, but fifty more emails already popped up in the past two days. Some of them were easily spam, so I spun through the inbox and deleted all those, eliminating over a hundred.
Curious about how Bastian interacted with his readers, I navigated to the Sent folder and riffled through a few.
One stopped me in my tracks.
Jess,
You don’t know me, but I wanted to thank you for your books.
They were just what I needed today to get away for a minute. My child was hospitalized last week and I’ve needed a bright spot. Looks like we might be here several weeks, so I’m grateful for twenty books to get me through.
Not sure you’ll even get this, but wanted to put it out there anyway.
Keesha
I blinked.
“Goodness,” I whispered, then scrolled further down. His response made my heart twitch.
Keesha,
I’m sorry to hear about your child. No mother should ever have to go through that.
I’m wishing both of you the best and I am glad you’re enjoying the books.
Would you mind telling me what hospital you’re in? I’d love to send you something.
Jess
My heart leapt into my throat. Twice, I read the email. Did he . . . ?
He did.
I scrolled further, startled to see the email chain continued a week later with another email from Keesha.
Jess,
Oh my goodness, I can’t believe you sent me all twenty of your books.
I’m . . . I don’t really know what to say. I just stopped crying. I haven’t had any money lately and I’ve been re-reading the first one because I borrowed it from the library and it’s the only one I had. I’m wild for Rodrigo.
