The same end-of-the-day ritual occurred like any other. The bus ride back home. The same walk up the begrudging stairs. Checking the mailbox only to find there was nothing in it. It almost drove Arthur crazy performing the same task anymore. He closed the mailbox and walked over to the elevator. The door opened and he stepped inside and pushed the button several times to go up.

Just as the door was about to close, he heard a female voice holler at him, "Wait! Wait!"

Arthur stopped the door with his hand just in time to allow a black woman and her daughter to step inside. The door closed and the elevator slowly went up. The mother, twenty-something year old Sophia Dummond, was leaning against the wall holding a bag of groceries. Her daughter stood next to her, looking up at Arthur. The little girl smiled at him, but Arthur didn't look at her. As much as he loved children, he wasn't in the mood to talk to anybody.

The elevator came to a halt, stopping in the middle of taking its passengers up to their destination. Just like everything else in the rotten apartment complex, it was falling apart.

"This building is so awful, isn't it?" Sophia bemoaned.

Arthur looked at Sophie. It was the first time since she ever spoken to him. None of the other tenants ever spoke to him before, not even during Christmas. He had seen Sophie a few times, but never had the courage to talk to her. It was the first time she acknowledged that he existed. Sophie was a kind and decent person and tried to act like people weren't invisible, even though she was struggling.

"This blinding is so awful. Right, Mommy?" The little girl asked. "So awful. Right, Mommy?"

Sophie locked eyes with Arthur and made the sign of a gun with her index and middle finger, pointing at the side of her head.

Arthur smiled at her. It wasn't everyday he met somebody who shared the same belief as him. He wanted to continue the conversation with her further, but the elevator suddenly jolted back to life and went up again.

The elevator dinged once it came to the right floor. The door opened and the mother and her daughter stepped out.

Arthur stepped out after them and turned to walk down to his apartment, but then turned back to Sophie and said, "Hey."

Sophie turned back to look at him.

Arthur made the same gun motion with his two fingers and pretended to blow his brains out in a dramatic fashion, rolling his eyes and lolling his head over to one side as though he were dead.

Sophie nodded and gave him an awkward smile before opening the door to her apartment and stepping inside with her daughter. Arthur heard the door lock and turned and went down the hall to retire to his own dwelling.

Arthur walked into his apartment and took off his jacket and walked into the living room. He placed the brown paper bag on the coffee table and then went into the kitchen and took his medication.

He checked in on his mother, who was sitting up in bed and watching a silent movie. Arthur went over and kissed her cheek and asked her about her day. She said she slept most of the time. Arthur went about fixing her dinner and sat with her while she ate. Soon as the movie was over, Arthur ran his mother a bath and helped wash her while she sat in the tub. He filled a plastic container with water and poured it over her hair.

"Did you get my letter from Thomas Wayne?" Arthur's mother asked him.

"Mom, why is that letter so important to you?" Arthur questioned her.

"He's gonna help us", she answered.

"You worked for him, like, what? Thirty years ago? What makes you think he's gonna help us?"

"Because Thomas Wayne is a good man. And all I know is...If he saw this place, it would make him sick. I can't explain it to you any better then that."

"I don't want you worrying about money, Mom. Or me", said Arthur. "Everybody's telling me my stand-up is ready for the big clubs."

"But, Happy, what makes you think you can do that?" His mother asked him. "Don't you have to be funny to be a comedian?"

Later that night, once his mother feel asleep, Arthur sat on the couch in the living room. His chest was bare and so were his feet. He was wearing his dark blue sweatpants. In one hand, he was holding a cigarette between his fingers. The TV was on, showing an old black and white movie staring Fred Astaire. Arthur took a long drag of his cigarette and blew out a puff of smoke, the intoxicating vapor swirling around his head like a daydream cloud. He placed his cigarette into the ashtray and looked at the revolver sitting on the table. He traced a finger over the gun and picked it up to examine it. He had never owned a gun before, let alone touched one.

Arthur cocked the gun and decided to have some fun with it. He pointed it at the television screen. He aimed it at the chair to his left and pretended to pull the trigger.

"Bang", said Arthur. He lowered the gun and looked at the TV. The legendary Fred Astaire was dancing and singing along with a line of factory workmen, all while a upbeat tune played in the background.

Arthur stood up and raised his arms above his head, holding the gun in one hand. His chest stuck out, showing off his naked, skeletal torso. His hips moved to the jazzy rhythm playing on the screen.

He imagined a pretty girl was standing next to him and asked in a feminine voice, "Hey, what's you name?"..."Arthur."..."Hey, Arthur. You're a really good dancer."..."I know. You know who's not? Him."

Without warning, Arthur accidentally fired the gun at the wall. A loud bang echoed through the living room. He dropped the gun and stumbled and fell to the floor. Oh, shit! He thought internally. His first reaction was to turn the volume all the way up on the TV, hoping to drown out the sound of the bullet that was fired. He stood up and went to examine the wall where a bullet hole was evident. His mother called out from her room.

"Happy? Are you all right? What was that noise?"

Arthur stuck his finger in the hole in the wall, hoping the tenant next door didn't hear anything. The last thing he needed was a complaint about a noise disturbance after hours. His mother continued yelling at him.

"I'm fine, Mom! I'm watching an old war movie!"

"Turn it down!"

Arthur ran both hands through his hair, mentally berating himself for acting like a complete idiot. He didn't know the first thing about gun safety and was already starting to regret taking the weapon.

"Sorry, Mom."