Vulnerability

Clearly, Sphere, you're correct that fear makes one unusually observant. I think it's all part of the stress response. I'm guessing the hypothalamus is to blame, but that's really your department. All I know is that slow-burning fear causes a steady hormone drip drip drip into dilated blood vessels, making your heart beat faster and your brain seize upon little details that it would have let slip by otherwise. Details like the deactivated speedometer in the cracked dashboard of the matatu that's hurtling you down the Nandi escarpment, or the quiet chuckles in the back that precede the information that you are to be wildly overcharged for the pleasure of that hurtle. These observations are usually welcome rewards the next day, when you sit in your kitchen, sipping tea, and ruing the loss of your borrowed cell phone. At the time, however, they are the unnecessarily taxing by-products of a daylong adrenaline buzz, leaving you a strung-out, nervous wreck by the end of the day.