Gotham City

chapter 6

four hours before the robbery

Bruce Wayne

All stories have a curious and even dangerous power. They are manifestations of truth, yours and mine. And truth is all at once the most wonderful yet terrifying thing in the whole world, which makes it nearly impossible to handle. It is such a great responsibility that it is best not to tell a story at all unless you know you can do it right. You must be very careful, or without knowing it you can change the world. We all can change the world with our stories. There is a story behind everything. How a picture got on a wall. How a scar got on your face. Sometimes the stories are simple, and sometimes they are hard and heartbreaking. There are times in my life when I have been medicine for some, while poison for others. I used to think I was a victim of my story until I realized the truth: that I am the creator of my story. I choose what type of person I will be and what type of impact I will leave on others. I will never choose the destructive path of self and outward victimization again. I wanted a perfect ending. Now I have learned, the hard way, that some poems do not rhyme, and some stories do not have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what is going to happen next.

" Sir, you look a little tired. " , Alfred, my butler, said. " Perhaps may be the case to have a quiet sleep tonight. " , he said, taking my mask in his hands.

" I can't, Alfred. " , I said, turning toward the computer. " Not after what happened at the police department. "

" Very well, then. Would like to have lunch here or out? "

" Here would be great. Thanks, Alfred. "

After the death of my parents, the only person in my life was Alfred. He helped me to understand how this city works. I learned that there is no justice in this city. This city is corrupt by mobsters that are free on the streets. But for me, this city was an opportunity. The city had seemed like a great place to discover who you are. It just seemed that there was a lot to experience here, as if all you had to do was show up and the city would take care of the rest, making sure you got the education, the maturing, the wising-up you needed. Its crowds, the noise, the endlessness of it all, the perpetual motion, felt exciting then—revealing—just the deep end I needed to jump into. There is something unique about Gotham, some quality, some matchless, pertinent combination of promise and despair, wizardry and counterfeit, abundance and depletion, that stimulates and allows for a reckoning to occur—maybe even forces it. The city pulls back the curtain on who you are; it tests you and shows you what you are made of in a way that has become iconic in our popular culture, and with good reason. Because of this city I managed to release the fear and get rid of loneliness around me. When I get lonely these days, I think: So be lonely, Bruce. Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience. But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilled yearnings. Do not use people. People do not deserve the pain you are going through. I took years of therapy which of course I refused it because of the trauma I went through when I was a child. It took me nine years to recover and become the person I am today. I learned that you manage to discover yourself using people around you. I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought, there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Then Harleen came across.

" Master Bruce, detective Gordon's daughter wants to talk to you. Should I redirect the call to the cave? "

" I did not expect the call, but sure. " , I said while I arrange my blue classic tie.