Boss' sole-less tennis shoes instantly turned into polished Patten-leather boots. The transformation continued as his hole-ridden, oversized pants turned into tailor-fit, designer jeans. Boss' layers of soiled shirts and sweatshirts were traded for a point-collar, button-down dress shirt. With his silver buckle fastened at his waist and his compass-equipped watch on wrist, Boss coolly ran his fingers through his soft, clean-cut hair. A slow grin came across his face, and Boss leaped from the two-story building, landing in the same place from which he jumped. No one but Boss knew that “their” headquarters were under attack. He saw the enemy, armed to the teeth, as they approached his unguarded territory. Though many surrounded him, Boss carefully jumped from building to building to better position himself. He used his finely tuned karate tactics to keep them at bay. Holding his preferred weapons in hand – the floppy sword and switchblade – Boss valiantly fought his rivals. One by one, Boss disarmed them and sent them whimpering away.

But, just as the striking of midnight ended Cinderella's fairytale, Boss' new attire and outfitted weapons changed back. He found himself holding a broken bottle in one hand and a thin tree branch in the other. His sole-less shoes returned along with his torn pants, cinched at the waist by a string. His ragged shirts covered his now exhausted body. Boss wiped the sweat from his dirty brow, and running his hand through his itching, unkempt hair, he remembered that he still carried lice. Boss was also now conscious of his aching hunger and the unremitting cold. His Calvin-and-Hobbes fantasy was not the result of childhood make-believe, but the affects of a hallucination from sniffing paint.

When most people have a nightmare, they wake up to escape it. Boss, however, lives a nightmare. To escape it, Boss spends most of his time inhaling toxic paint. Though Boss does the inhaling, the paint bag does the sucking – and his life is shriveling up like a deflating balloon. As you contemplate the nightmare of Boss' shrinking life, you find that it is not just his worn out tennis shoes that are soul-less.