Lately, I'm streaming "Disappeared" - a television show from Investigation Discovery, or the "ID" channel. I typically watch this as I'm falling asleep at night.
The premise of each episode: someone goes missing.
Typical responses to the person going missing: friends and loved ones insist, "(S)He would NEVER...
- Miss work
- Go x hours/days without calling me
- Leave a pet behind
- Etc.
Conclusions include:
- The person is never found (this is most typical)
- The person has met with foul play (second most common)
- The person was in an accident
- The person disappeared on purpose and is *shocked* to discover that his or her family cared enough to involve the police, post flyers everywhere, and cry every day for x years that this person has been missing.
I basically like this show. Not enough of the people are found, alive OR dead, so that leaves me with a sense of incompleteness, if that's a word.
However, it is impacting my life more than I'd like to admit. For instance, today I went to school (I'm doing my prerequisites for nursing school). I have every class with a girl I'll call "Megan" (because that is her name). It was POURING rain, and I stopped off to get rain boots at Target. When I got back in the car, I texted Megan: "Running late! Save me a seat!!!" and drove to school.
Once I got to school, I actually found a great parking spot and headed to the classroom (it's in one of those trailers schools like to refer to as "portables"). When I walked in, Megan was not in her seat. I was a little early and saved her a seat, checking my phone. She hadn't responded, which is odd for Megan. I figured it was the weather.
The teacher arrived, and class started, with no Megan. I collected handouts for her and waited, checking my phone repeatedly throughout class. No texts or calls. I texted her again: "Where are you???" I started to worry that she had been in a car accident in the rain - she had been in a terrible accident in the fall and missed 3 weeks of school.
Class ended and I headed into the building for our next class. I sat right near the door and didn't save her a seat, kind of as a punishment to her for not contacting me. I'm so conniving. Anyway, I called and left her a message, and then posted on her Facebook wall: Where are you? Class isn't the same without you!!
This just wasn't like Megan. She would never purposely miss class. She would never not respond to calls, texts, and Facebook messages. How would I find her? Did I need to reach out to her family (who have probably never heard of me)? At what point should I really worry? (At this point it had been like 2 hours since I'd tried to contact her.)
Then, in the middle of our second class, she texted me: "Hey girl I just got up. I went to school this morning but I have some kind of bug or something. I had to leave and I've been home asleep ever since!"
My obvious response: "I thought you were dead!!!!"
The point of all this: I'm not sure Disappeared is having a great impact on me. There are 4 seasons, though, and I'll be watching all of them.
