I’m seated at my desk, poring over the numbers from last quarter. I really need to get home. But I can’t. Not until I complete this transaction. Something is missing. Something is off.
I’m concentrating so hard on finding the missing link that it startles me when the phone rings, the sound thrusting me hard and violently back into the real world. It’s not that I’m jumpy. I just thought I’d had the ringer switched off.
I pick up the receiver and shove it back down in its cradle. I’m in a hurry as it is. As a matter of principle, I keep the ringer switched off to avoid such disturbances, so whoever was calling shouldn’t have expected to reach me anyhow. That’s what my secretary is for. I silence the ringer and turn my attention back to the balance sheet. I sigh in relief, not because what
