A piercing ray of sunshine poked Leon’s eyelids, evaporating the easy haze of sleep. Rising like a weed, he blinked through the unwelcome illumination. Leon didn’t need to be anywhere at a certain time, as was the benefit of inheriting a made-up role in his father’s corporate empire. Smacking his dry lips, he shuffled to the kitchen but was shocked to not smell coffee and bacon wafting through his penthouse apartment. Much to his aggravation, his housekeeper was nowhere to be found.

Leon’s grogginess amplified his desperation for a convenient warm breakfast, so he wrapped himself in a trenchcoat and shoved his feet into slippers to visit a coffee shop down the block. In the hall, the elevator doors displayed a fresh ‘out of order’ sign. Given that the world had always revolved around him, this inconvenience was inevitably personal. He vowed to get the maintenance staff fired as he tripped over his feet down the twenty-five flights of stairs. 

By the time Leon arrived on the ground floor, he was livid with knee pain and indignation. Almost immediately after stepping out into the world, a car speeding by splashed him with a wall of sewer water. Leon screamed the dirtiest words he knew, something he had heard his father say once when a barista made his latte with too much foam. He briefly considered going back to change, but then remembered the broken elevator and decided to get coffee first.

The coffee shop was only a few hundred feet away, but his path was blocked by a construction crew digging out the sidewalk. A man in an orange hardhat was indifferent to Leon’s request for an escort around the construction. Leon would either have to step into oncoming traffic or endeavor a scenic route around the block. It was highly unlikely that the man in the hardhat would even allow an attempt at the risky shortcut, so Leon grumbled as he stomped away in his soggy slippers. 

A chilling wind pounded Leon’s torso as he rounded the corner. Papers and trash torpedoed towards his face like a war zone. As he tried to dodge the flying assailants, he smashed his knee into the unforgiving side of a tin trash can. Leon howled and thrashed about as a geyser of blood soaked through his pajama pants and dripped down his shin, staining the fabric like a crimson badge of ineptitude. His rage blinded him from an oncoming elderly woman who was also struggling against the tyrannical wind. In his fit, he collided with her shoulder and sent her crashing to the concrete. Unable to summon a drop of empathy, Leon spat out a derogatory remark about her gender and age as she grimaced in pain and clutched her hip. Someone nearby quickly kneeled to help the woman, not even glancing at Leon, which irritated him further, so he cussed out that person too.

Leon fled the scene with an exaggerated limp, hoping that any onlookers would note that he too was a wounded victim. Finally, the coffee shop came into view like the pearly gates of Heaven. Leon forgot to feel self-conscious of his derelict appearance as he staggered inside. With his credit card in his outstretched hand, he floated to the counter and ordered a large coffee and a bagel. The cashier didn’t blink as she informed Leon that his card was declined. Instinctively, he denied the possibility, but the cashier’s face was a brick wall. The barista interrupted his protestations by greeting the customer behind him, so Leon stormed out of the shop vowing to never grant them the pleasure of his business again.

Outside, the towering skyscrapers absorbed Leon’s exasperated roar. He wondered if this day was a cruel cosmic joke on him. What could he have done to deserve this? He had never hurt anyone, although he had helped his dad determine that firing all the lowest-tier employees would save the company millions. That happened all the time, it’s just the way things went, at least, that was what Leon had told himself.

His bank wasn’t far and they had always been accommodating, so Leon clung to the hope that a quick trip would solve all his problems. On his way, Leon encountered a crosswalk light that seemed to be frozen on the continuum of time and space. To make matters worse, nobody else waiting contained a wisp of urgency. Leon complained loudly, but the city folk were immune to his grievances, as if they were in on the torturous game the streetlights were playing. Just when Leon was moments away from erupting, the light changed and the flow of the crowd carried him across the street. 

At the bank, the security guard sprang to his feet as Leon limped across the lobby, leaving puddles of blood and dirty water in his wake. The banker reached for the emergency button under his desk as Leon approached the glass with a deranged glare in his eye. A thick vein in Leon’s neck pulsed as he waved his credit card and demanded a withdrawal. The banker clicked a few buttons on his computer and then calmly informed Leon that his card had been canceled. It appeared that the card’s owner, Leon’s father, had cut him off. 

The last thread of composure snapped in Leon’s brain. He slammed his fists on the desk like a wild animal and shouted that the banker was a liar. He ripped a pen off the chain and brandished it above his head as if he had any life experience for how to use a weapon. As the security guard tackled Leon to the ground, the banker’s index finger pressed the emergency button. Nothing in Leon’s life had prepared him to handle this avalanche of stress, so he screamed at the top of his lungs as hot tears stung his eyes.

By the time the police arrived, the security guard was on his feet, and everyone in the bank was staring towards the middle of the room. The only noise was a high pitched cry. Sitting in a dirty trench coat was a wailing baby, no more than a year old. When a police officer carefully placed a hand on the baby’s back, Leon stopped crying and looked around, like he was ready to start everything over again.