When the call came from her lover, she was not immediately afraid, though her phone rang first thing in the morning, which was unusual but not unheard of, not necessarily consistent with danger, though truthfully, she did not have the experience to say, meaning she could be brave, even if stupidly so, and pick up the call cheerfully, despite some small part of her feeling that something was wrong, remembering inexplicably the time on family vacation when she had felt similarly, when the plane engine on the right wing caught fire and the girl saw the flames up close, being on the starboard side, seated in a window seat, and yet, she was not immediately afraid, because she did not know what it meant, flames on the wing of a plane—were they supposed to be there?—and had little experience with fire, not to mention no experience with faulty planes, being uninterested in the action movies her mother watched starring sexy male actors and fighter jets, the noise too loud and the screen too bright, meaning that, in those times, the girl felt alone, since her mother did not want to be interrupted in front of the television, just as the girl figured her mother would not want to be interrupted on the plane, despite the fire that had erupted on the right wing, which seemed like a possible problem, but her mother was playing solitaire and sipping a cocktail, trying to get drunk enough to forget her fear of flying, and so the girl behaved, keeping quiet about the flare in her chest that could have been excitement or fear, not knowing whether she would live through the experience if the fire was, indeed, indicative of a problem, whether her body might be taken over by flames and forces she could not control, like it had been when her lover’s hand probed the angle of her hip last night, and there was a whisper in her ear, “Is this okay?” to which she agreed silently, feeling unafraid, and, in fact, ready to say things she shouldn’t, things it was too soon to say, though what did it matter, because when it was over, she had said something else, her mouth against the hollow of her lover’s neck, and it must have been the right thing, as she had gotten a laugh, the warm vibrations of it ringing out beneath her, tickling the girl’s lips, making her heart soar, so that she did not think of what might follow, was not immediately afraid to hear why her lover was calling, when her phone rang so early the next morning.