The Man in the Warm Fleece
On the 11th of March 2021, a leading banking firm offered accounts to those with no fixed abode so that they could access money without keeping it on them at all times. In March 2031, a better solution was found. People staggered down the back alley all the time. Lovers, strangers, people who cared and had no means to help, people who had the means to help but didn’t care. Some who staggered spat into the ratty hat left in front of the homeless man. Two teenagers dropped rocks into it, giggled, moved on. There were many who staggered down the back alley. But one person was new. Different. Not like the others. Garth Mendis staggered down the alley with his tie askew, his top button undone and his dreams shattered. He swigged from the bottle of tonic wine freely, looking up at the obelisk flats, their endless slat windows, the permanent haze of smog. At some point in the twenty first centu...