It was a cold, rainy evening. The alarm in the room sounded louder than any other. Fred, who had been sleeping peacefully as if he were a child, was very tired from his white-collar job; he had to sit in his office and work for hours on the computer. Fred didn’t want to leave his bed; he didn’t want to start his day and repeat his everyday cycle. But some force made him get up. He quickly dressed, left his old apartment—it wasn’t a particularly nice apartment, just a small, poor one he could afford—and rushed to the office, where