As a child Greg had always been a dreamer. Living in his own world, spending more time imagining how things would turn out instead of actually doing anything to achieve those outcomes. That way life had been peaceful and passive, flowing like an undisturbed stream that got separated from the river by pure accident.

Living like that wasn't risky at all, it required no sacrifices and Greg was content with that. Each time an opportunity appeared he spent days recreating all the outcomes in his head all the while the real opportunities flew by. He liked it that way. In his opinion, those who struggled to achieve something in life were the ones who did not understand what life was all about.

He had found himself a job that would provide just enough pay to rent a tiny apartment and afford two meals a day. Something that most of the population wouldn't have been satisfied with. But Greg never bothered with such meagre things, what mattered to him was that he had a place to stay, nothing more, nothing less. Where he stayed never mattered because by that point he had lived thousands of lives in his own head and that was more than enough to compensate for his awful apartment.

One night while he had been on his shift, a co-worker tried to strike up a conversation. "So how'd you end up here? Not many people dream to be night shift workers at a gas station in the middle of nowhere."

Some time had passed since Greg actually came up with an answer and during that time he had already lived through ten possible ways the conversation could have went. "I don't know, the pay is good I guess." He answered and lost himself in his thoughts again. For him imagination was like a drug, he couldn't go a day without it.

"Yeah I guess so." His co-worker replied. He noticed that Greg's answer was completely mechanical and that he said something solely for the purpose of saying it. Realizing that there would be no further talking, he finished his cigarette and went inside. All the while Greg stood there in silence not even noticing that he had been standing alone for a while.