“Hello?” Trevor’s impatient baritone barked across the line. It was Tuesday, and the usual paperwork routines had to be observed before meetings.
The caller on the other end fell silent in sad apology. “Sorry, sir. This wasn’t the number I meant to dial.”
The Insurance Manager paused at the despondent ring in the caller’s voice, then righted himself at the thought of the paperwork he still had to finish.
“Well…since I’ve got you on the line, perhaps you’d give me a bit of advice. I don’t know which suit to wear to my daughter’s wedding. Purple would be garish, but is SO me. Black is blah, but safe. What do YOU think?”
Trevor paused, then answered the rather desperate voice. “Well….” “Thought so. Purple has always been my favourite colour. Thanks, man. I’ll make sure to tell my friends about Trevor’s Heartline.”
Trevor glanced at the receiver, flummoxed.
Word spread faster than poor Trevor’s confusion. Over the week, Trevor received more phone calls at the office. Each began with “This wasn’t the number I meant to dial.”
An increasingly overwhelmed Trevor began dispensing increasingly random advice to flustered callers.
“Trevor, my mother won’t let me go out with this cute boy from school. What should I do?”
“Listen to her.“Oh, Trevor, my boss has given me an impossible task.”
“Tell him to finish it himself.”
“Trevor, the neighbours sing loudly outside my home at 6:00 a.m. every morning. What should I do?”
“Go out and sing with them.”
Strangely, every single suggestion —
Worked.
The gifted counsellor soon had to field recommendations. And he had no idea why.
Trevor’s Heartline —
Won hearts. Way more than he expected.
Journalists clamoured to interview him. He became a familiar face at podcasts.
A radio station sought him out, and he soon hosted his own counselling show.
Listeners found his avant-garde advice —
Engaging.
Experts praised his refreshingly unconventional methodology.
Counselling professionals lauded his authenticity.
Trevor, wracked beyond belief, insisted that his counselling qualifications were “ten grades below zero.”
“I’m an insurance salesman…”
But his humility earned him even more fans.
Especially female ones.
No one listened to his explanations.
A journalist finally uncovered the bald truth after hours of surreptitious surveillance.
Trevor really knew —
Nothing.
She gave the hassled podcast counsellor reprieve in an article with the headline:
“This wasn’t the number I meant to dial.”
Trevor read it and heaved a sigh of relief.
And received a new phone call.
“Help me, Trevor! Should I go with a grey or blue jacket?”
Trevor sighed.
Mirrors of the Mind by Michelle Liew is a collection of psychological and supernatural short stories that explore the quiet unease beneath ordinary moments. These are not tales of spectacle, but of subtle fracture — where memory distorts, silence speaks, and the self is not always singular. In these stories, what is unseen often carries the greatest weight, and what lingers is not what is shown, but what is felt.
