Chapter 3Colin woke hungry. Nothing unusual in that, nor in the aches in his muscles from hard work. In contrast to his usual morning, however, he woke cradled in a comfortable mattress, not the lumpy reject he'd dragged from a forgotten corner of his crumbling home. An enticing smell wafting up the stairs set his mouth watering. No thin gruel. No watery tea. Smells like heaven. He stared up into the thatch of the attic bedroom's ceiling as rosy sunrise filtered through a small window and cast lights and shadows over him. For a long moment, he luxuriated in the unfamiliar comfort of a homey morning. All over the world, people wake to this, he contemplated. No luxury or any expectation of it, only a day filled with toil and another day of the same, day after day, until life's journey comes
