Gregory woke up on a Tuesday, which was neither auspicious nor narratively convenient—just aggressively weekday. The kind of day that smells like overcooked ambition and faint deodorant panic.
But something was different.
He wasn't performing being okay anymore. He was just... being okay-ish. Which, as Yolanda had once said while adjusting her metaphorical tiara of tempered expectations, was "a powerful form of rebellion."
He shuffled into his kitchen, now unenchanted, save for Maurice doing yoga in the fruit bowl. The tiny owl breathed through his feathers, exhaled a leaf, and murmured, "Every day is leg day for your emotional core."
Gregory cracked three eggs into a pan. One yolk blinked at him.
"Not again," he muttered.
But it didn't speak. It just settled into the sizzle, reminding him: Not all surprises are cosmic lessons. Sometimes they're just breakfast.
---
Scene 46: Confrontation at the Farmer's Market of Fallibility
Gregory spotted Jamal by the artisanal loquats.
