unreasonable state

Last year about this time, I assisted two students in going through some trauma. Though I would say we are all through what seems to be the worst of it, I still find myself in this unreasonable state...

When am I going to stop going into an absolute panic every time those students try to contact me now? Every time the phone rings, and I see it's them, my stomach starts to churn, my head starts to whirl. If I was in the middle of a conversation with someone, the train of thought is lost. My mind is instantly in chaos. It doesn't matter if I know that they are calling to ask me to go get ice cream with them. It's completely unrelated to the mind or logic. It's almost like a purely habitual physical response.

So, with this backdrop in mind, one of the students, let's call her Rachel, decided to play this April Fool's joke on me. She calls me up on my cell phone, just as I was getting out of a musical that I had gone to watch. I was still kind of *in the show* mentally, so I wasn't really thinking about the date. I see it's her and the panic starts.

"Hello?" I answer.
*Silence.*
"Hello? Rachel?"
And suddenly I hear heart-rending sobbing on the phone.
"Rachel," I say tentatively in the calmest and gentlest voice I can. "What happened?"
She went on to tell me that her dog had just died. I thought, "Oh crap! Of all the things to happen. And of all the times for it to happen. This is the last thing this girl needs." My mind is racing, trying to think of ways to help her handle this one. After about a minute, she burst out laughing and told me "April Fool's."

Ok, I just don't think my heart can handle that much stress. It was surging with adrenaline, and then to suddenly be told nothing's wrong.... I thought, "Child! Are you trying to kill me?!"

Anyway, after the fact, my friend Kara was kind enough to explain to her that that probably wasn't the kindest joke to play on poor ol' Becky.