Dalia goes to the gym every morning. She likes to exercise before work. The gym is big and bright. There are many machines and weights on the gym floor. Dalia always brings her phone with her. She uses it to listen to music. One morning, Dalia is on the treadmill. She wants to send a message to her friend, Marco. She types quickly because she is walking fast. She does not check the message before she sends it. Her phone changes some of her words. This is called autocorrect. The message looks very strange. Marco reads it and feels confused. Dalia types, "I am at the gym.

I will meet you at the duck." She means to write "desk," but her phone writes "duck" instead. Marco reads the message again. He does not understand. He writes back, "What duck? Are you okay?" Dalia does not see his reply. She is still on the treadmill. She is listening to music with her headphones. A few minutes later, she looks at her phone. She sees Marco's message. She reads it and laughs out loud. A woman near her looks up from her exercise bike. The woman smiles at Dalia. Dalia feels a little embarrassed. Her face turns red. She types a new message to Marco very carefully this time.

Dalia writes, "Sorry! I mean the desk, not a duck! Autocorrect is bad today!" Marco laughs too. He sends back a funny picture of a duck. Dalia laughs again. She almost falls off the treadmill. She holds the handles quickly. A man next to her asks, "Are you okay?" Dalia smiles and says, "Yes, thank you. I just got a funny message." She slows down the treadmill. She sits on a bench to rest. She shows the messages to her gym friend, Priya. Priya reads them and laughs very loudly. Other people on the gym floor look at them. Dalia and Priya laugh together for a long time. After that, Dalia always checks her messages before she sends them.

Dalia is halfway through her morning workout when she decides to message her colleague, Marco, about their plans to meet. The gym floor is buzzing with the steady rhythm of machines and the occasional clank of weights, but Dalia barely notices any of it. She types the message while walking briskly on the treadmill, glancing between the screen and the path ahead. Without pausing to proofread, she taps 'send' and slots her phone back into the tray in front of her. A moment later, Marco reads the message with a frown deepening across his face. Dalia has written, "I am nearly done here. Meet me at the flamingo in ten minutes." She had intended to type "foyer," but autocorrect had other ideas.

Marco stares at the screen, genuinely baffled, and begins typing a cautious reply. Marco writes back, "The flamingo? Are you feeling alright?" Meanwhile, Dalia is completely absorbed in her workout, her headphones blocking out everything around her. By the time she notices his reply, several minutes have passed and Marco has sent two more increasingly worried messages. Dalia reads the conversation from the beginning and immediately bursts out laughing, drawing curious glances from the people on either side of her. She grabs the handles of the treadmill to steady herself, her shoulders shaking with laughter. A gym instructor nearby raises an eyebrow and asks, "Is everything alright over there?" Dalia waves her hand and nods, still giggling, and quickly taps out an explanation to Marco.

She writes, "So sorry! Autocorrect changed 'foyer' to 'flamingo.' Meet me at the front desk!" Marco, clearly relieved, responds with a string of laughing emojis and a photo of a plastic flamingo he has found online. Dalia is now sitting on a nearby bench, having abandoned the treadmill entirely, and she shows the exchange to her workout partner, Priya, who doubles over with laughter. Other gym-goers glance over, some smiling at the pair without quite knowing why. When Dalia eventually meets Marco at the front desk, he greets her by spreading his arms wide and saying, "Welcome to the flamingo!" She rolls her eyes, but she is laughing all the same. From that day on, Dalia makes a habit of reading every message twice before hitting send, though she quietly admits that the flamingo incident has become her favorite story to tell.