The Number That Followed Me

I had to change the number on my first proper mobile because the woman who owned it before me never stopped giving it out. She'd just moved and never learned her new one. For weeks, my phone rang with her life. Her old employer chasing a final payslip. A new supervisor trying to give her shifts. Her vet asking when she was collecting her cat. Her landlord needing documents to keep her flat. Every single day it was another thread of her life unravelling in my hand while she remained unreachable. At first I passed messages along. Then I stopped trying. After a month, I gave in and changed the number. Melissa ' if you ever were meant to start that massage training in 2013, I hope you finally turned up somewhere. I carried your chaos longer than I should have.