Those days were rare, however.



Usually when I came home straight from work, there would be people there, and so I'd have to sneak quietly away. I'd set off on a random direction and wander the suburbs for a few hours, eventually circling back home to check again. Some days I would do this three, four, even five times, not sneaking back in until after midnight when my housemates were asleep.



There was nowhere else for me to spend time. I had no books to read (I'd sold them already) and I couldn't spare the 10 lousy bucks to join the city library. I had no money to take the bus anywhere, and I didn't even have the spare change to buy a cup of coffee and sit in a coffeehouse all day long.