Of All the Things I've Lost, I Miss My Mind the Most

I'd lost my phone.

This is most inconvenient I thought. I was sitting at the bus stop, already exhausted from school without any complications being added to my life, thank you very much. Yet complications were being added anyways.

Methodically, I began to pat down my pockets. No phone.

I rummaged in the outer section of my backpack where I kept the phone during classes. Nope.

I likewise rummaged in the inner portions of my backpack, shifting pencil cases, binders, notebooks, readable books, and the €5 umbrella I bought from a hocker in Milan and which had since become slightly squashed. No phone there.

I looked on the bench beside me and at the ground around my feet, just in case the phone had fallen without me noticing. There was not a phone in sight.

At this point, I started to worry in earnest. I'd had a cell phone for almost six years. I could barely remember what it was like to be without one--although I seemed to remember that I hadn't been able to make calls whenever I wanted or wherever I wanted and that I'd actually had to memorize people's numbers or something ridiculous like that.

The thought of having to revert to such medieval methods of telephone usage caused me to break into a cold sweat. I rummaged through the small backpack section again. This time I took care to move each individual coin, key, Band-Aid, student ID, hand sanitizer container, and random pieces of paper to be certain my coin wasn't behind it.

You know I thought this rummaging would be a lot easier with two hands.

In fact, I realized the whole time I'd been searching for my phone I'd been using only my right hand...

"And why are you canceling this dentist's appointment?" said the receptionist.

"Oh, I don't need it anymore," I said distractedly. My one-handed search had yielded nothing. Where was my phone?

"All right. Have a nice day."

"You too." I pressed the OFF button, ending the five-minute conversation.

I looked down at the phone in my left hand.

Wait a minute...