A Missed Phone Call

I sometimes think my anxieties are fully justified, it’s only natural to feel like this when you’re presented with a particular situation that might worry most people. Okay, perhaps I can overthink certain aspects of it. There are certain things I’ll go over and over in my head until I’ve exhausted all possible scenarios and I’m a gibbering wreck.

Anyway, it was all going well, back to normal, back to the treadmill.

Feeling relatively buoyant.

Then there’s the missed phone call.

No message. No voicemail.

Just the missed call from someone in an official capacity. It could be something completely innocent, but the klaxons have already gone off in my head.

And when there’s no message, no text and no voicemail, it gives license to your brain to play detective. Inspector Anxious at your service, ready to create havoc, connect the dots, tie loose ends, draw conclusions, and create some pretty awful scenarios for you free-of-charge.

Why this?

Why that?

Who said what?

Could it be this?

Could it be that?

What’s the link here?

Why? Why? Why?

Yes, here are railways lines full of connections linked to this idea and that idea, cross cross lines of evidence, dots full of inky suspicion full of missed conversations and misunderstood facial expressions. Yes, m’lud, it all leads to only one conclusion, the worst possible conclusion Inspector Anxious can come to in his capacity to give you a weeks worth of the shits, a dry mouth and a tearful weekend.

Inspector Anxious has drawn up a line of suspects for an identity parade full of likely people, situations and exchanges that will help you to identify which awful fantasy fits the bill. Your brain is your detective, your mind is a prison to whatever awful thoughts you may have, playing over and over again like a broken needle on an old 45.

You see my brain just can’t leave it alone, it can’t just sit there and have pleasant thoughts. It has to tie up a few unpleasant situations together to create a lovely gift of terrible thoughts.

It was just a phone call.

But the lack of messages and clues meant that my mind, my brain, had to fill in all the blanks – and that's never a good thing.