"KYRET!!! GET IN HERE!!!" The scream was a familiar one to Bowen Kyret. He hadn't been able to hold a job for long before, and he figured that this one, a computer specialist opening at ShadowCorp's main labs was about to end, even with his grad-school level training. He was uncommonly smart for his age, but he used the lab's systems mostly for games and the Internet.
Five minutes later Bowen walked out of Mr. Schlachter's office, gathered his belongings, which were merely a backpack of books and papers and a notebook computer, and left ShadowCorp's labs for the last time. He started to walk toward his apartment on Richardson Avenue.
Bowen Kyret walked into his apartment. For some strange reason, his landlord never came to collect the rent, even though he never paid it. Odd. It was about five. "Oh crap! I've got to get to Mom and Dad's," thought Bowen. He was expected at his parents' house for dinner at seven. He mother wasn't a very good cook, and his father wouldn't use the grill at this time of year. Bowen grabbed a banana and headed down the hall to change his clothes.
"Fired AGAIN!? What are you, some kind of @#$^%ing idiot!?" was all that Mikhail Kyret could say about his son's newest lost job.
"Calm down Mikhail." Muriel Kyret tried to calm her husband, but to no avail.
"Don't tell me what to do, Muriel. I'll scream and curse if I want to!"
"Mikhail, not in front of the kids!"
"Muriel, we only have one son and he's 26!"
"That's still no reason to curse!" "Maybe I better be going, mom," said Bowen, speaking for the first time during the entire meal.
"That would be a good idea. I'll get your jacket," she said as she stood up.
An hour later, Bowen got off the RailRunner at the Shadow City terminus and began to walk towards home. While walking, he saw a small glowing ball on the sidewalk. He picked it up and promptly disappeared in a flash of light.