NON-FICTION

I Can’t Stop Checking the Obituaries

Paranoia has taken over

Claire Franky
4 min readAug 9, 2024

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Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

“No matches found.”

I typed his name and date of birth followed by a different state and pressed enter.

“No matches found.”

Exhaling, I changed the state once more.

“No matches found.”

After running my fingers through my hair, I drummed them on the edge of my laptop. What am I doing? What the hell is wrong with me?

Tilting my head back and stretching my neck brought a moment of peace, quickly followed by another wave of paranoia as my eyes moved down and found my phone on the table next to me.

Snapping the laptop closed, I grabbed the phone and brought it to my face. I started with WhatsApp messages.

My last two messages were still undelivered.

I opened my email.

My last email was still undelivered.

I checked social media.

No updates.

Frustrated, I locked my phone and slid it back onto the table. You’re being paranoid. Forget it. Walk away.

I nodded to myself before standing and beginning to clear the living room floor of the mountain of toddler…

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