People got shot in Chicago last weekend, as usual.

Only this time my whole family found out.

First call: Saturday AM. Placed from: England.

My uncle begins with, “You don’t spend time in South Chicago, do you?”

I hear my grandmother shout something in the background.

“No,” I say. “Not really.”

“Amma,” he yells. “It’s okay. She doesn’t go to South Chicago.”

“We heard about the shootings,” he explains to me. Instead of asking what shootings, as I am first inclined to, I say, “Oh yeah. The shootings.”

“Ajji just wanted to make sure you were okay,” he says.

“Let me talk to her,” I say.

She takes the phone.

“It’s okay Ajj, no shootings on my end.”

She tells me she read about it, and got worried. I reassure her that I rarely head to the South Side, and point out that I’m currently at a restaurant that serves avocado mousse.

“But as a journalist, you must go into these areas,” she says. “You cannot discriminate.”

I am filled with love for her.

“So start wearing bullet proof vests,” she concludes. “All bullet proof. That’s what you need.”

End.

First email: Sunday PM. Placed from: Dallas.

Subject: Urgent, heard about shootings.

Body: Heard about the shootings. Please call. Love Dad.

Before calling, I decide to research these famed shootings, of which the Raos are all up ons.

Turns out five women shopping at a Lane Bryant in a strip mall were killed by men trying to steal money. It’s awful and tragic like most of Chicago’s news. But come on. I’m a size two. It’s a Lane Bryant. Still, I say. Let me comfort my father.

He greets me with a Hi, sounding strangely relaxed for someone concerned his daughter might be dead. But then, oh yes. I hear a Superbowl party in the background.

“So you were worried about the shootings?” I ask.

“Just wanted to make sure you’re okay,” he says. It sounds like he’s eating chips.

“Dad,” I say, “the shooting was on the South Side, at a store for overweight women.”

It’s quiet for a moment.

Then, “Are you watching the game?” he asks.

And thus, my grandmother fears were addressed and, eventually, put to rest.