Conditional Reality

Fishtail Morningstar spent many years in prison. Upon his release he was sold to a construction company that put him to work installing roofs. Fishtail preferred his previous life. In prison he didn’t have to work. As a slave he worked all his waking hours with only half a day off each week. During his idle hours he decorated his skin with tattoos and plotted ways to return to jail. A traveling salesman came by one day and offered Fishtail a set of encyclopedias. Fishtail showed the salesman his many tattoos. This is all the learning I need, he said.