The stage had been set and the pictures had been drawn.  The only way to change the future was to amend the present.  To take something and pack it away, maybe forever, maybe for only a little while.  Yet this was the only way to achieve his aims, this he was certain of.

So he had lain the clothes on the bed, all pressed and ready for the new day, the new him.  Together they looked as if they had a life of their own already.  Maybe there would be no need to infuse them with this new persona. He shook his head, the article had been quite clear on the steps that he had to take.  Whether the article was real or had just appeared in a fevered dream, he could not recall.

Sometimes reality was so awful, so depressing that the natural reaction was to run from it.  Or hide.  He had hidden for too long and when he re-emerged, the same problems were still there, waiting for him.  Something more drastic was called for.

The clippers lay silent on the bed, leaving the hair behind scattered on the floor.  It would not be him that cleared it up, well not exactly him.