One day Aaron's dad decided that three more hours than everyone wasn't enough. so he began waking up at 3am. And then finally 2am.

His friends would ask whether that was okay. They worried for him. Aaron's dad would brush it all off saying that he was working out more and taking supplements. And that he needed less 

sleep

now with this routine. He went to bed at 6pm and woke up at 2am.

"But doesn't that mean you don't actually get the extra time? Well not all of it... since you're going to bed earlier."

"Look, Jimmy. what do you do after six?"

"Well I--"

"Exactly. Jack shit. You watch TV and drink and pick your butt. So yes I do get more time. Because when I wake up at 2am the world is stone cold silent. And I ain't doing unproductive bullshit like you once it's quittin time."

"Gee, Aaron's Dad... you don't gotta be such an ass--"

The sound of a chair screeched backwards. Aaron's dad approached Jimmy. Stuck his index finger and then poked it onto the top of Jimmy's chest twice.

"What'd you call me, asshole?"

"I didn't. I didn't mean--"

"I don't give a damn what you meant or didn't mean. Tell me what you called me."

"Aaron's Dad. I didn't mean it. I was just talking out of my--"

"I don't give a damn. I said." he pressed his finger into Jimmy's chest every few seconds as he said this. "tell me... what the hell you just called me."

"I.. I called you an ass."

Aaron's Dad relaxed his hand. Put his hand down.

"Thank you, Jimmy."

"I'm sorr--" a large fist decked Jimmy's jaw. He went down.

Aaron's Dad walked out.

Aaron's Dad was a self-made man. Every dollar he had, he'd made it himself. Any dollar he hadn't made he had stolen with his barehands from another man who had made it.

There were few of his kind. Nobody was real these days. They preferred to imagine themselves as being someone who they weren't. Aaron's Dad knew he was one thing and one thing only. A 

real man

.