I caught Tony at the deli two blocks down from our building. He looked like one of those drones in those futuristic movies where The Machines Had Won or something.
"Ahh, man," he said, like it blew off some steam in doing so. "Well, I mean I've been around." In that moment a tiny spark appeared in his eyes, searching weakly for something in front of him. "My life is in a state of imbalance."
And that was his answer.
"But I haven't seen you in ages, man. You don't text back, you're not on Discord. What have you been doing, though?"
The dull gray shimmer in the eyes kicked back in. "Well, like all college-educated Americans and meth heads, I'm trying to get rich off of crypto."
Despite myself, I laughed. I was, too. Just wasn't bold enough, or good enough at it, to admit it publicly.
I left him there with a couple tips I'd heard for him to recycle from his mind into the gutter. I didn't see him for another two months.
His hair had grown even grayer.
Isn't it great sometimes when we see our selves out their in some other flesh form. But one difference. they happen to be bolder. Then you can watch them do crazy things or even ask them how they would feel in crazy contexts we aren't willing to put ourselves through. Kind of like controlling a video game character