And then he slipped...

The hotel Henry stayed in was one of the most expensive places in London. The interior of his room was unadorned, yet elegant. Instead of a bathtub, the bathroom had a private whirlpool and a small integrated sauna. He suspected that he wouldn't even be able to buy the bed with the money he spent on his rent. He never imagined himself staying in such a place, and in some other circumstances, he may have enjoyed all of this. But if he was honest with himself, he would have preferred to not come here at all.

In his everyday life, Henry worked as a programmer for a small, independent software company. Their new software product, a customizable operating system had picked up faster than expected, and his CEO had decided to increase their reach with the help of some external money. For this reason, Henry was meeting with a potential investor to talk about their product.

As he got on his way and entered the underground train, he tried to remember the great time he had had in this city. But all he could think of were dilapidated housing spaces, the loud and exhausting traffic, and outrageous prices in snack bars. Even thoughts of the people he had met weren't able to cheer him up. He was only able to think of Toby. Back when they had studied together, Toby had spent more time thinking about partying and instant gratifications than anybody else Henry knew. But he had turned his life around and was now one of the leading employees at an investment firm focused on sustainable investment and ethical software development. Upon catching up in a phone call the previous week, Toby had suggested, that Henry might be the ideal person for this pitch. A week ago, this sounded like a nice challenge. Now, the thought of the presentation made Henry's stomach turn.

He imagined, how it would feel like when the presentation was over. He saw himself not even laughed at, but simply ignored, and his colleagues discontent. Just like everybody anxious, he could perfectly predict the future and knew, that from now on, his time with the company would go downhill. He missed the time when they had only built a small productivity app, when they had been independent. When he left the underground station, he found himself in a crowd of people rushing down the street. It made him uncomfortable to see how busy they were. He saw a part of himself in them, a part he resented. How many of them used being busy as an excuse to not follow through with what they wanted out of life? How many of them ran after things that didn't make them happy? He felt sorry for them, and for himself.

Toby waited for him in front of the Hyde Park. His greeting was enthusiastic, he obviously was glad to see his old friend again. Henry was more reserved, but as they started to walk through the park, Toby's presence helped him relax. Still, he wanted the meeting to be over or even better, just not do it at all.
And sometimes, the universe grants wishes. Or maybe it simply was bad luck, that this exact morning an orangutan had broken out of the London Zoo, had run about four kilometers to rest in the Hyde Park while eating a banana it had snatched in the backyard of a cafe on its way. It was less improbable that Henry and Toby came to the same spot a few hours later, Henry being lost in thought and trying to listen to Toby. And it was the peel of this exact banana that marked the premature end of the conversations and of Henry's life as he stepped on it, slipped and broke his neck in a rather twisted and unfortunate fall.