Bad Reception

"I can't hear you, Grandma!" Tania exclaimed into the phone. Static hissed into her ear, releasing her grandmother's voice in spurts: "Stormaftercall""Grandma!" exclaimed Tania as the line went silent. "Daddy, Grandma's in the middle of a storm!"Dad placed his homemade bread on a cooling rack before tossing his oven mitts on the counter. He hurried over and took the phone. "Mom?" he asked. He dialed and listened again. Shaking his head, he disconnected the line. "The phone's out."Tania's lip trembled. "She said she'll call after the stormor maybe she wants me to call. I'm not sure what she meant. Some words were missing." Tania blinked back tears. "We didn't get to say goodbye.""She probably tried," said Dad, taking Tania into his arms. "But you couldn't hear because of the bad reception." When Tania's eyebrows furrowed into a puzzled expression, he added, "Bad reception happens when something interferes with the message, so you can't hear it clearly or some words get blocked.""Should