NEW LENOX, Illinois — It was one of the most surreal phone calls I’ve experienced.

A few hours earlier, John Prevost had watched the TV in stunned disbelief as his younger brother emerged on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and was named Pope Leo XIV. Journalists quickly showed up at the older brother’s front door in suburban Chicago to learn everything they could about the new pontiff. I was one of them.

I had arrived at Prevost’s home in New Lenox in the early evening after packing up and driving three hours from Indianapolis, where I am based. After walking by other media and news equipment outside, I knocked on the door. Prevost let me come in.

As we talked, a ringing came from the basement. Prevost hurried to a tablet downstairs and I followed, my camera on.

“That might be the pope,” he said.

He found he had a few missed phone calls from his brother. He called the pope back, using a speaker to play the audio out loud. The pope picked up.

I got the shot — the new pontiff’s voice speaking to his older brother, asking him why he hadn’t been answering his calls. I was shaking.

“Well, first you need to know you’re on the air right now,” the older brother responded. “This is the first time I’m hearing that this thing rang.”

The conversation went on for just a few minutes. They talked about the news of the day and discussed making plans for the older brother to come to Rome sometime this week. They talked like regular siblings.

During the rest of the interview, Prevost and I spoke about the new pope and the brothers’ family. We talked about their childhood in Chicago and the pope’s favorite food, which is steak. Prevost told me they FaceTime almost every day and they play The New York Times’ game Wordle. He said the last time he had spoken with his brother was Tuesday before the conclave began.

I couldn’t help but replay over and over in my mind the call, a human moment from one of the world’s most divine figures. The pope called his brother, and the brother called back.

John Prevost described his brother as being very concerned for the poor and those who don’t have a voice. He said he expects him to be a “second Pope Francis.”

“He’s not going to be real far left and he’s not going to be real far right,” he added. “Kind of right down the middle.”

At one point during the interview, John Prevost realized he had missed several calls from his brother, so he gave the new pope a call back.

Leo told him he wasn’t interested in being part of the interview and after a brief message of congratulations and discussion in which they talked like any two brothers about travel arrangements, they hung up.

The new pope grew up the youngest of three boys. John Prevost, who was only a year older than him, said he remembers Robert Prevost being very good in school as a kid and enjoying playing tag, Monopoly and Risk.

From a young age, he said he knew his brother was going to be a priest. Although he didn’t expect him to become pope, he recalled a neighbor predicting that very thing when Robert Prevost was only a first grader.

“She sensed that at 6 years old,” he said. “How she did that, who knows. It took this long, but here he is, first American pope.”

When Robert Prevost graduated eighth grade, he left for seminary school, his brother said.

“There’s a whole period there where we didn’t really grow up together,” he said. “It was just on vacations that we had contact together.”

These days, the brothers talk on the phone every day, John Prevost said. Robert Prevost will call him and they’ll discuss everything from politics to religion and even play the day’s Wordle.

John Prevost said he’s not sure how much time his brother will have to talk as the new pope and how they’ll handle staying in touch in the future.

“It’s already strange not having someone to talk to,” he said.