A tired day of muted notifications, coffee, beard talk, and delayed errands kept drifting until one old memory stood out: a cactus bought with care at a plant exhibition, then quickly eaten by Bingo the golden retriever....

Mirtazapine, embassy security, bank ambition, family trust, and the need to be number one all lock together here into a harder question of control: who protects me, who follows me, and how high I can force the ceiling.