1 The Promise and the Premonition

The fluorescent lights of my office always had a way of making everything look slightly sickly but that Tuesday morning, the glare felt particularly oppressive My desk was a mountain of financial reports spreadsheets and half-empty cups of lukewarm coffee I was exhausted the kind of bone-deep fatigue that comes from working double shifts to keep a roof over our heads I rubbed my temples trying to focus but my mind kept drifting a thousand miles south to a place of fabricated magic and manufactured joy