text: The first fifty years, two months, and three days of his adult life had finally passed. Prior days were spent dreaming of what life could have been for him and at night, delusions of family dinners and banters of love with his wife danced in his fabricated memories. He painted a fictional story for himself, riding the tidal waves of imagination carried by his ever-thinking mind. From holding his daughter’s hand as she took her first step to walking her down the aisle for her wedding, he regularly visualized events he wished were real. In reality, he was a lonely soul. Family and friends were few and far between for him. His only, for lack of a better word, support was a chain-smoking alcoholic of a father, who spent most days drunk and passed out when not at work. His adolescence consisted of endless hours of mindless cartoon watching. His teenage years weren’t any different as video games replaced the slapstick animations that littered his television. By sixteen, he was stealing cigarette boxes from his father’s cartons and washing down the menthol flavor with the cheap beer stocked in the fridge. Close to failing high school and dropping out, by some miracle, he managed to graduate. An accomplishment he ignored, as no one, but he, was able to partake in the joy. Unemployed for all of summer, with no plans to further his education, he had reached his eighteenth year of life, and like many other recent and past milestones, he spent it alone. He was never sure if his father, who was fast asleep on the couch, forgot or even knew his birthday, but after nine or ten drinks, it wasn’t important. He lit a cigarette and pondered in his inebriated state, mentally creating plans to make big changes to his life. As a legal adult, he made a vow to himself to turn his life towards another path. He envisioned a promising future filled with success and good company surrounding him. Drowsy and nodding off, it already felt like reality. He saw his future years with actual birthday candles flickering, standing tall and many, as wax dripped onto the cake’s icing. Airhorns and loud chatter echoed in the smoke from congratulatory cigars, in celebration of his new wife and his soon-to-be parenthood. With his daughter tugging his arm to wake him in the morning, he could feel the warmth of the sun’s rays slowly peeking through the curtained windows. “Sir! We need to go now!!” yelled the fireman. “Huh? What--What’s going on?” he asked. As he suddenly awoke, he watched the flames swaying back and forth, ridiculing his foolish hangover and stupidity. A blanket of black drifted along the ceiling, muffling the cries and calls for help from above. His father, with legs burnt looked still and motionless. “We have to get my dad! He’s burning! No! Wait!!” he pled while being carried down to safety. He sat across from the apartment building, staring up at the horror that ripped through his home and above. Flashes of red and blue lights bouncing off the bricks brought him into a mindless stare, wondering what could have caused this disaster. Heavy puffs of smoke from the watered down, still burning embers billowed into the early morning sky. With the fire subsiding, he watched the rescue team bring out bodies, seemingly unmoving, and began to question why he was the only one still breathing. With his adrenaline fading, glancing down, he winced in pain.