Writers must have really overactive imaginations. Well, I guess that's kind of a given, but it pops up in weird ways sometimes. Like earlier this week--I think it was Thursday morning--I was walking into the garage when I hear a helicopter overhead. Now keep in mind this is 5:30 in the morning; it's not exactly as if the traffic needs monitoring yet. My first thought was that it had to be the police chasing a fleeing felon.
My garage door is up, I'm away from the button to bring it back down, and trapped in the open. I expected a criminal to duck into my garage, gun drawn, at any moment. I rushed to my SUV, checked the back seat to make sure said felon hadn't already broken into my garage and was hiding there, then jumped into the car, and locked all the doors. I didn't waste any time getting my seat belt on and the car in gear. I wanted out of there and my door down again pronto.
Do you think normal people would react like this? I'm guessing probably not, or at least not with the level of detail my brain supplied to the scenario.
Sometimes I wonder if this is why I'm such a worrier. I can imagine dozens of scenarios--not all of them particularly likely to happen--and get myself going. I even do it with silly things like email. If I send an email to someone and I don't hear back, I immediately imagine that they didn't get it, then I start running through their reactions to my not sending a note, and I end up having to send another note to ask if they received the first one. No wonder I get tired!
