Dan felt like there was an invisible canopy above him,

enclosing him in a space of emotional turmoil, blocking him

off from the liveliness and joy that was outside and out of his

reach. Its tarpaulin of despondency hung over him, its very

presence an immense pressure upon his soul. He was

drowning, slowly sinking down to the bottom as the gravitas

of his depression increased almost every second. He'd even

lost the will to pray for salvation. Any way out of this would

be welcome, even one that would be his final action in life.

What was he so depressed about; one might wonder?

The reason for Dan's present emotional situation has driven

many to the same state: monotony. Since he finished school

and gained a job, Dan's life always felt scripted. He woke up,

all alone without a girlfriend or family, went to work and

faced horrible treatment from some of his colleagues, and

came back home to spend time alone in his pajamas while his

peers were out enjoying the city's nightlife. He couldn’t even

try to imitate them as he had no friends to imitate. Loneliness

was a fundamental feature of his existence, and though it

always bothered him, he was never able to escape his

sheltered and isolated upbringing. Dan had limited social

skills and struggled to make friends in school. Now he didn’t

even have family to rely on for company, as both his parents

were overseeing a wildlife documentary in Africa. They

barely called him once a year. His parents' neglect was not

new but had been the main cause of his early sheltered life.

They only ever attended to his basic wellbeing, ensuring he

had three square meals, clothes, and was alive. Anything else

they ignored as they went around chasing their dream of

adventuring and discovering wild places with interesting

animals and plants.

Back then, Dan had been so shy that instead of going

out to find friends, he turned to books for company. This had

the side effect of making him extraordinarily intelligent, but

now he was beginning to wonder if becoming a bibliophile

was the best course of action. He regretted not having friends.

His parents, he realized now, were not the only ones

responsible for his current situation; he had also contributed

with his young decision to find companionship exclusively in

narrative pages. Did his vast knowledge help him in life? Of

course, it did. It helped him to obtain an aeronautical

engineering job at a civilian agency that paid him fifteen

million dollars every year, allowing him to accumulate wealth

of over three hundred million, as he didn't have anything he

spent money on. News flash, lack of a social life can really

boost one's savings rate. His resolve to get companionship

from books was also what led him to earn several degrees, but

what worth are his degrees if he had no one to share his

accomplishments with? What is life if lived in isolation?

To be frank, he might even have felt relieved about his

depression, as it represented a break from the monotony of

his normal life. He hadn't gone to work for a week, calling in

sick. They tolerated his absence because, though he might not

be indispensable, he was of high value. They would find it

hard to find someone who was as qualified and experienced

as him. He knew he could stay away from work for half a

year, or a year even, and though they would complain, they

would not fire him.

However, he did not intend to spend so long depressed,

at least if he had the power to get out of his gloomy situation.

As much as he appreciated the break from his daily

monotonous life, it was worsening his situation. Laying and

inwardly lamenting his situation was doing no good and

brought back memories of the past, being all alone, neglected

by everyone but his books. He needed to try something new.

He wondered whether that something new should be suicide

or finding the courage to step out and make some friends.

At least he started listening to music, which was

something he didn't do in the past. With music, he got to hear

voices that weren’t his own, which was a bonus to the

melodious companionship they provided.

At the moment he had an album of Shinedown, The

Sound Of Madness, playing. Though the songs, especially

“Breaking Inside,” were worsening his emotional condition, it

was alleviating his loneliness as he read an interesting

adventure novel. He wondered why he had never tried using

music to read before, as it felt relaxing and enjoyable.

Five pages further into his reading, he got inspired by

his character's story. You see, Dan was reading a book about

an orphan who escaped an abusive home and decided to brave

the streets and build a life for himself with the skills he had.

He read about how the orphan learned many life lessons and

became an expert in streetology, making a lot of friends along

the way and even gaining a partner, a pretty Southern girl.

That gave him pause. Friends… would imitating the

character he was reading about help him escape his dull and

monotonous life? Would imitating the orphan help him make

some friends? Or better yet, a girlfriend? The last one was

enough motivation to make him sit up on his bed and really

consider this, folding the page to mark where he’d been as he

closed the book. He felt enthusiastic about the possibility of a

romantic relationship. His sheltered and lonely life meant that

he had been unable to voice interest in any girl he'd ever

liked, and his complete lack of confidence had driven them

away from him, even the weird and odd ones. He was like a

skunk that girls skirted around or took another route to avoid

if possible. Despite his wealth, his lack of social confidence

and physical attributes made him feel extremely unattractive.

His black hair was nothing to speak of, worn unstyled and

long. He only shampooed his hair and combed it, without

paying it much concern. He was unfortunate to be born

without eyes that girls find charming; he had boring brown

eyes, without luxurious eyelashes or soulful expressions. The

less said about his height and physique, the better. He looks

malnourished, despite eating a decent diet. His five feet six

inch height was not much to speak of for a guy. He took

solace in the fact that at least he wasn't ugly, just bland.

But all that could change, he could change, and build a

character for himself. He needed to build a life for himself

that would make him the man of the moment. If he was going

to do this, then he was going to need a lot of help. First, the

character he was trying to emulate had several substantial

talents that made him able to undertake and survive the

adventure. He had productive skills, beyond basic education,

and street smarts.

The first Dan ticked mentally. He had several

productive skills: he could cook, he was a talented and wellrounded

engineer, and he was called a computer wizard by

the head of his department. Dan could operate and build

computers and software like a wizard manipulating magic,

which may sound boastful, but was not a lie. Those were not

his only productive skills, however; he was skilled with math,

physics, chemistry and biology.

Anyway, the next on the list of prerequisites for the

adventure was an education beyond the basics. Dan clearly

had an advanced education. That left only street smarts, the

only one on the mental list he'd made that he could not tick.

Introvert, anxious and socially awkward—all these words in

some way defined Dan and none of them were aspects

possessed by individuals with street smarts. That was fine,

though, as he believed there was someone who could help

him with that. He may need to contact his only friend in the

world, who was actually a seasonal friend, so half the time

would be rightly classified as an acquaintance.

Before that, he needed to decide what his own

adventure should be. The orphan whose story had inspired

him to consider introducing adventure to his life had had an

adventure of building a life for himself, getting a higher

education, making friends, getting a girlfriend, and a home.

These were adventures of everyday people. Dan already had

all those except a girlfriend, and as for the home, he was the

proud owner of a ten-million-dollar elegant, contemporary

villa with floor to ceiling windows and an infinity pool. His

acquaintance slash friend had been the one to talk him into

buying the house and Ferrari. Dan would admit that at that

time he hadn't seen the use of both, perfectly comfortable

with commuting and paying monthly rents. Now, though, he

was aware that they may help him shape the person he

wanted to be.

Since he already possessed all but one of the

components of his inspiration's adventure, then perhaps he

needed to think about an adventure unique to him. He

attacked this problem with the zeal he usually used to attack

mathematical equations and arrived at one conclusion. His

adventure, no matter what it will be, should not be something

he was adverse to. It must be something he would enjoy and

have the skills to survive. The addition of skills to the

brainstorming made him narrow down the type of adventure

he needed to a single category: science.

An adventure of science may actually get him out of his

depressed state and help him build a life in the most

enjoyable way. Now he only just needed to decide what

concerning science this premeditated adventure would be

about.

What if I decide based on role models? He wondered

thoughtfully.

In his entire life, he had had just two people he really

looked up to and they were both historical figures, John

Davison Rockefeller and Nikola Tesla. The former he

regarded for his business clout, as it certainly was not easy to

be able to control ninety percent of a nation's oil. Normally he

wasn't a fan of monopolism, as it worked against diversity

and competition, which were two of many things the world

needed to thrive. Without competition and diversification,

there'd be very little progress. But Rockefeller's acumen was

to be envied, and Dan had envied it for a long time, lying in

bed and imagining himself as a big business tycoon. It took

Rockefeller's sort of acumen to achieve a monopolistic

domination over any business market, and that was what

made Dan admire monopolism; though he didn't really like it,

the shrewdness and intelligence behind it resonated positively

with him.

As for Tesla, he and science fiction had been the driving

forces behind Dan pursuing science instead of something less

intimidating, like art. He was also passionate about it, though

it didn't take him long to realize how the reality of science

was very different from the sci-fi version. He wanted to be an

inventor of Tesla's caliber, but his progress on that dream had

been marginal. He had a patented invention to his name, a

graph for evaluating gravity waves, detecting it, measuring it,

and telling its present status and also predicting its future

status by the state of its present motion. That's how far he'd

gone in achieving his dream to be like Tesla. He might have

had some ideas and hypotheses for other inventions, but that's

all they were: ideas and hypotheses. With this bid for

adventure, now he could finally dedicate his time and mind to

be like those he'd always admired. Rockefeller and Tesla

meant business and science, which in turn meant using

inventions for business, diving into the science market.

As the idea broadened in his head, the canopic coverage

of depression over him started to peel away and give way to

excitement, an excitement that had been out of reach just

moments ago. Choosing adventure, he thought, was more

beneficial than suicide and that benefit was his life. A life that

he was going to turn around. It was time to call his mentor so

that they could come together to hash out this plan.

He turned on his phone and gave it a voice command:

“Call Rogers Leenman.”

“Calling Rogers Leenman,” the phone replied.

He took a deep breath and relaxed as the phone

vibrated, connecting the call.

“What's up, Dan?” A deep voice from the phone's

speaker greeted Dan.

“I'm doing great, Rogers,” he answered, scratching his

bearded chin. He really needed a shave. “Can I meet up with

you? I have something life changing I need your input on.”

“Sure, I'm at the Chinese bar down at Lakeson.”

“You know I don't do bars, Rogers,” he complained. He

wanted to add “or alcohol,” but left it at that, as Rogers knew

very well that he was not comfortable with being drunk or

being around drunk people.

“Well, do you want me to drive down to your place, that

woody neighborhood? Think again, son,” Rogers said in

askance.

“You were the one who convinced me to buy the

house,” Dan told him, dubiously.

“You needed a home, rent would not always be stable

and cheap, it was cheap and luxurious, you had the money…

need I go on? That house is a nice investment.”

“Are you making me come to the bar as an attempt to

make me less of an introvert?” Dan asked, suspiciously. This

wouldn't be the first time. Since their workplace friendly

acquaintanceship graduated to semi-friendship, seven years

ago, Rogers had made innumerable attempts to get him out of

his shell. One might wonder why he still didn't see the older

man as a full friend. It was because he secretly did not want

to. He knew, of course, that they were friends, but he feared

being abandoned, so to save himself from that hurt, he only

accepted their relationship as that of a mentor and a protégé.

“I have no idea what you're talking about.”

“You should have said so,” Dan said, shaking his head,

though Rogers couldn't see it. “I'm coming.”

“What!” Rogers exclaimed in shock.

“I'm trying to come out of my shell, that’s what I need

your input on. Expect me soon, ETA fifteen minutes.”

With that, he hung up, jumped down from his bed and

hurried to the bathroom. He needed a bath and to get out of

his pajamas. There was no time for a shave and he didn't

really think he wanted the beard off. It made him look a bit

older and more mature, and it was something different,

something new. This was the type of thing he needed in his

life now: new things, differences from the monotony that was

his life—change. He craved change.