Appearances Deceive

The mighty do fall. One minute you live in a mansion on the lakefront, the sound of waves lulling you to sleep, the next minute you're holed up in a shack, behind someone's dilapidated house. The floor of your shack is on a slant. If you had a bowling ball it would roll from one end of the room to the other. There's a funky smell in the place, sort of a weird, burned, chemical smell.

You would never have guessed you'd find this guy, in this place. Alone with a dog. Everything looks a little harder, more frayed, less clean. The light is a little brighter around here, everything is a little more washed out, less vivid. More real, but less substantial.

You used to sort of envy this guy, maybe looked up to him a bit, he seemed to have it all; beautiful wife, nice car, big, imposing house. Everyone seemed happy. Satisfied. Established. When you tell the guy you are surprised to see him in his new digs, that his "breakup" seems most improbable, he explains it all with two words: "Appearances deceive."

Yes. They do.