Chapter 2: Dylan’s Reality (draft 1)

Shame.

That was all Dylan felt on his way to work. Shame was all Dylan felt since graduating from university. He felt ashamed of the four years that he spent barely surviving his college life, having to rely on his groupmates to carry him through papers and readings. He was so ashamed that he intentionally missed his graduation day. ("I overslept," was his usual excuse for people who asked why he didn't show up.) He felt ashamed of his dead-end job that had nothing to do with his degree. He felt ashamed that even after years in the workforce, he still has no fucking clue what to do with his life.

He was so ashamed of himself, he couldn't even open up to anyone. Not his family. Not his friends. Not Sophie, the only girl who attempted to understand him, who now lived miles and miles away. To Dylan, shame felt a lot like claustrophobia. Every day, there was a new reason to be ashamed, squeezing him in from all sides, leaving no room for anyone but himself.

Dylan marinated in shame as he squeezed his way into a crowded jeepney, a vehicle with two long rows of seats at the back and a passenger seat in the front. The jeepney is supposed to fit 20 passengers: 9 in each back row, and two in the passenger seat beside the driver. On most trips, the driver keeps to the passenger limit.

This was not one of those trips. Dylan was pushed to the edge of his seat, he was practically standing. But this was every day for him. Anyway, this was a 25-minute ride at worst to get to his office building 5 kilometers away. He endured this position while passing silver-bronze coins from passenger to driver.

Dylan wondered if his foreign boss, Raylen, would survive a trip like this. He thought of a few of his workmates who went to work in cars. Commute builds character, he tried to console himself. But deep inside, he wished he could drive to work in a car. It didn't have to be a fancy one either; a second-hand with a functioning air conditioning would do. Or better yet, taxi rides to and from work would be ideal. If only rent wasn't so expensive, he could be able to afford that comfort.

On the jeepney ride, Dylan found himself thinking of other things to distract him from thinking about his sorry life. He thought about the sunrise, and how the early morning could have been his favorite part of the day if the city were more serene, if the streets weren't so crowded. He thought about a new book he read about a very guilty saint who was in anguish over some pears he stole. He thought about the voice in his own head, and whether it truly belonged to him. Sometimes, the voice in his head would say things that he wouldn't normally think of, like, "Persevere in your work." But why? He would ask the voice in his head. What's the point?

"Keep living," the voice would sometimes say. That definitely did not come from Dylan.

As Dylan thought about these alien thoughts, the jeepney stopped as a few passengers got out. He realized this was his stop, too.

He stood in front of a giant, white building, on the corner of two major avenues. He checked his watch and let out a two-ton sigh. He walked forward and braced himself for a work day that was bound to be more unpleasant than usual.

Dylan quickly sat in front of his desk and pretended to work as his boss, Ray, shouted at Hannah, one of Dylan's coworkers. Though Raylen didn't curse at her, he might as well have. His shouts were magnified in the relatively small office shared by seven people.

Dylan could barely make out what Ray was angry about - something about Hannah's quality of work. It is true that Hannah was clumsy and would tend to miss some details. It didn't help that she was Ray's unofficial assistant (officially, she was a Project Manager), being given numerous tasks that were unrelated to her role. Though Dylan felt bad for her, he was relieved that this little episode seemed to distract his boss from noticing his late employee.

Dylan quietly opened his laptop and, like five other people in the office, pretended to work while Ray now tried but failed to console the crying Hannah. Just another day in the office, Dylan thought to himself. He put on his headphones, opened the video files that needed editing, and went straight to work.

Dylan spent majority of his post-college life from 2017-2020 working as a video editor for various jobs, mostly as a freelancer. His most stable job was in church, working as a video editor in charge of editing the Sunday messages. The work was easy enough and he couldn't complain about anything except for one thing: his dad, the pastor, was his boss.

When the world ended in 2020, video editing in church was the only "job" Dylan could secure. After a year of taking the parishioners' money to edit his dad's sermons, his conscience couldn't take it anymore. Despite his dad's genuine care and reassurance, Dylan set out to find employment elsewhere. In the last month of 2020, with the money he saved from working freelance jobs the past 3 years, he moved out and started searching for online jobs.

This was how Dylan came across Sunshine City Studios in 2021, in an ad they sent out looking for video editors. Before applying, Dylan did his research.

Started by Raylen Colling in 2017, Sunshine City was a studio that, according to the founder, "aimed to help people living in cities develop a positive outlook on life by providing them with informational and inspirational content."

Since its foundation, "informational and inspirational content" took on different forms. Back when the studio started, "informational and inspirational content" took the form of vlogs, filmed and edited by the founder, Raylen Colling, about his "life in the new city." He made videos on his whole experience settling into this new country, with video titles like, "HOW TO FIND YOUR WAY AROUND THE CITY | NAVIGATING ASIA'S MOST CONFUSING TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM," "BEST EATS IN THE METRO | THE FOOD IS SURPRISINGLY CHEAP," and "THE ART OF BEING PRESENT | 10 LESSONS I LEARNED FROM LIVING IN SUNSHINE CITY." In these videos, Raylen Colling - or Ray, as he wanted to be called - took on a persona, speaking to the camera as if he were in a nature documentary (when in fact, he was just walking city streets that Dylan, as a local, knew to be rich people territory).

Dylan was half-surprised that a lot of these old videos would garner more than half a million views. Some of them even hit the 1 million mark. When Dylan did his research, he found that while a good 70% of these views came from locals who craved validation from foreigners, a good 30% of these views came from people from outside "Sunshine City" who wanted to experience the version of the city that Ray and other foreign vloggers portrayed. In 2019, two years before he joined the team, Sunshine City Studios evolved from being a vlog of one person to being a collective, with two of Ray's friends from abroad joining in and making content of their own, taking turns in posting their videos on their channel.

It was at this point that “informational and inspirational content” took another form. Instead of city-life hacks and and introspective lessons, Ray and friends’ content became more about the night life experience, with video titles such as "EVERYBODY'S HANDS GO UP | EXPLORING SUNSHINE CITY'S NIGHTLIFE," "MANS ON THE STREET INTERVIEW WITH RAY, GEOFF, AND HUNTER," and "SHE WOULD DO WHAT!?! | MANS ON THE STREET INTERVIEW WITH RAY, GEOFF, AND HUNTER FT. LYKA."

As Dylan researched all this for his job interview, he saw that this is when the channel was at its peak. With these types of videos, the channel would reach an all-time high in terms of views, garnering more than 1 million views for most videos, sometimes reaching 5 million.

That was until 2020.

Not a lot of people liked to talk about the details of that worldwide event: a respiratory virus that spread throughout different countries. Some would argue that this virus wasn’t so bad, and that people were overreacting; the number of people who died from lack of oxygen tell a different story. No one knew how the virus started. All people knew for sure was that it felt like the end of the world, especially in the place that Ray called "Sunshine City." The night clubs were some of the first to close, being the sort of crowded place where the virus could spread. After losing their main source of content, the three friends scrambled to find something new to talk about. Something with substance. Something brave. They posted a vlog that became their highest-viewed video; the last one to reach that many views.

The title read: "HONESTLY? IT'S NOT THAT BAD..."

The video received mixed reactions at the time of posting. But as the next few months went by, people on the Internet judged Sunshine City Studio’s take on the worldwide pandemic to be misinformed and insensitive. The national government warned that it would go on a complete "lockdown," encouraging non-citizens to go back to their home countries before the airports close, and urging locals to stay home as much as possible. Ray's two friends heeded this warning and went back to their home country. Ray, however, stayed in the country to "do what good he could do." In this time, Ray found a new message of hope to share to the world: cryptocurrency. From 2020-2021, Ray posted videos with titles such as, “THE FUTURE OF MONEY | EXPLORING CRYPTOCURRENCY AND HOW YOU CAN INVEST IN IT,” “SECURE YOUR FUTURE NOW | 5 TIPS ON INVESTMENT,” and “ALL IT TAKES IS THE PUSH OF A BUTTON | AN APP THAT HELPS YOU TRADE EFFECTIVELY USING JUST YOUR PHONE (EPICTRADING).”

These videos got little views, and channel viewership had an obvious dip. So, Ray Colling decided to rebrand, possibly hoping to save his name and to get his brand back up. At the beginning of 2021, he posted a video entitled, "A RAY OF HOPE," which was twenty minutes of reflection on the state of the world and his calling" (pun intended), some tears of compassion for the world, and a “wake-up call to return to the original vision of the channel." The video ended with a call for people to join his team and create informational, inspirational videos to uplift a city that needs “a Ray of hope,” now more than ever.

This is the same video that convinced Dylan, desperate to get any sort of job, to pass in an application. He nervously made up a resume, adding more effort than he should have, and sent an email to Raylen Colling. Just a minutes after sending, he got a reply.

“are you free for an interview right now?”

Dylan rushed to take a bath in his tiny new bathroom, furiously dried his hair with a towel, and quickly put on one of the four long-sleeve polos he owned, not even bothering to wear anything over his red, checkered boxers. He plugged his laptop, making sure the wires were arranged a certain way so that it would charge, and prayed that this dying machine would not fail him. He set up his camera and checked himself on the screen. He looked proper, he thought to himself. He looked at Ray’s email sent ten minutes ago, and hoped it wasn’t too late to reply.

“Dear Sir Raylen,

Yes, I’m available right now. Kindly send me the link where we can do the interview.

Sincerely,

Dylan Ybanez.”

Dylan wondered if he could have phrased that email better, but it was too late. Thankfully, Sir Raylen sent the link he so kindly asked for. Dylan had a somewhat smooth interview with Ray. While this was by no means a dream job for him, the offer, by his standards, was good enough, and enabled him to live in a tiny apartment by himself. Plus, he would receive a new company laptop, something he badly needed. Back then, Dylan thought that things were looking up for him. He accepted the job, hopeful that this was the start of a future he would carve out for himself.

This happened 4 years ago.

It is 2025 now. The virus is long gone, and the end of the world, well, ended. After four years in Sunshine City Studio, one promotion and a move to a new, spacious condominium building, Dylan felt even more dead. He wasn’t just back at square one; he went further back. If there was a negative 10th square, that’s where he was. Being one year away from thirty, Dylan didn’t know how to feel. He stared at the screen with dead eyes as he edited “short-form content,” a video of Ray talking into a camera and giving advice on how to be “a man of vision.”

“You need. To be. A man. Of vision,” said Ray in the video.

Add transition. Add “Ray of Hope” logo. Swooping sound effect.

“If you want to achieve things in life. You can’t just sit around and do nothing.” Long pause. Edit that out; cut all awkward pauses to make dialogue quick and seamless.

“But you know what’s worse? Frantically doing something without a clear goal. When I first moved here in 2017, I didn’t have anything to my name. I had zero no experience, zero connections, just a high school degree and the little savings I had. But what I did have was a goal: to make informational, inspirational videos that give people hope. This is my advice, especially for fathers, employees, anyone with any sort of influence. If you’re a person with no clear goal in mind, you’re just a blind man leading other blind men. And that’s why…”

Swooping sound effect again. Loop back to beginning.

And just like that, another short video edit was done. Only one more 40-minute vlog to complete with subtitles. Dylan could easily finish the remaining video that day, but it was due next week. He had a whole afternoon, from 1:00pm-6:00pm, to work on it. He decided to take it easy and sneak in some social media time from 10:42AM to lunch time.

This kind of work reminded him of his first job at his dad’s church, except Pastor Robert “Bobby” Ybanez’s sermons made more sense to him, mostly because he was used to his dad: how he spoke with so much gentleness as he quoted the whole Bible almost from memory. Dylan actually missed working for his home church, and interacting with the people there. Right now, he wouldn’t consider himself a person of faith, but there was just a warmth he felt from his home church. But even if he wanted to come back, there was nothing he could do. Pastor Bobby passed away three years ago. And though the church still ran under the leadership of his mother, Pastor Ruby Ybanez, he wasn’t a huge fan of his mother’s fire-and-brimstone preaching style. Phone calls with her are unbelievably sad, especially since his dad.

Dylan missed his dad and his wisdom. Pastor Bobby used to tell him things like, “Don’t think about what others think, my son. Think about what God thinks, and you will live a peaceful life.” Dylan would have found that concept comforting, except his mother seemed to be God’s mouthpiece, nagging him constantly about what God wants for him. He wondered what God would think about him right now, scrolling the Internet on company time, indirectly robbing his white employer. Then, he thought about what his mother would think, and the answer was much clearer. He put those thoughts aside and continued to pretend to work.

He double-checked to make sure his headphones were plugged before watching a video on his favorite online game, “Magic Mythos.” As he watched the video, he surveyed the office. He looked at his boss, Ray, who was now slumped in his office desk, hands in his face, thinking about God-knows-what. He saw Hannah, the Social Media Specialist and More, who was now typing as if nothing happened, probably rebooking tickets for their out-of-town work trip. He looked at Tim, the Graphic Designer, sitting beside the new hire… What was her name again? He looked at Mel, the Social Media Manager/Analyst, hoping she wouldn’t call another useless meeting today. He looked at the kid beside him, Archie, the Content Specialist that he managed, busy scheduling posts for this week. He didn’t mind any of them, and they didn’t seem to mind him.

At around 11:10AM, Dylan started to feel guilty about lazing around and decided to go back to work. He quickly checked the channel’s stats; not his job, but he was just curious. Nowadays, Ray’s videos seem to be doing well again. Recently, people seemed to like the few travel videos Ray had been doing with the crew. The team decided to double down on that by making more. Dylan dragged a video, tentatively entitled, “RAY_GOES_TO_BLANK.mov,” onto the video editor and started the whole process again. “Ray Goes to _____” was a new series announced by Sunshine City Studio where Ray and the team go to different parts of the country to showcase city life in those areas.

At lunchtime, Dylan and his coworkers, Archie and Hannah, ate in the breakroom. Dylan had a weird case of deja vu as his workmates talked.

“How’s your boss treating you?” Hannah asked Archie.

“He’s not my boss,” said the kid. “And he barely works.”

“Hey,” said Dylan, annoyed. “That’s not true.”

“You were watching gaming videos earlier while everyone else worked,” said Archie.

“What? No I wasn’t,” said Dylan, before finally admitting, “It was just for ten minutes. Besides, I’ve earned the right to laze around. You, on the other hand, still have a lot to learn. Tsk, you shouldn’t snitch on your boss like that.”

“You’re not my boss,” said Archie. The two continued to tease each other unseriously, playfully accusing each other of being bad at their respective jobs. In truth, Dylan and Archie – Content Manager and Content Specialist, respectively – were a great team who got a lot done. If Ray were being honest, the duo were responsible for keeping the channel afloat, editing videos at lightning speed and getting them posted on time. Despite not being the best example to his younger colleague, Dylan trained him well for the tasks he had to do.

“Hey, no fighting at the lunch table,” said Hannah, who was one of Dylan’s first friends in the office. She was Ray’s first hire, and the only one Dylan could really talk to during his early years at the company. Through the years, she and Ray became even closer friends. When Pastor Bobby was at the hospital, Hannah was one of the first people to visit and give fruits. Through the years, Dylan was grateful to have a friend like Hannah in the office. “And I saw you this morning, Dylan. You were late.”

Dylan bared all his teeth in an attempt to smile. “Traffic was bad.”

“Traffic is always bad,” said Hannah. “And you ride the train.”

“Sorry,” said Dylan teasingly, with matching pout and puppy eyes. Then he looked serious. “Hey, for real, though. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, Hannah. That was pretty bad, even for Ray,” said Archie, showing concern and taking Hannah’s side.

“Yes, yes,” said Hannah dismissively. “It’s my fault. I booked the wrong flight for our trip next Monday. I got the 3AM flight instead of 3PM.”

“Okay, and? At least we get to the venue early,” assured Dylan, who was ready to defend the clumsy Hannah at all costs. “We can scout the area, Archie and I can take some shots of the sunrise, we can have breakfast. It’ll be fun!”

“Oh, yeah. Which camera should we use?” Archie asked Dylan. They went on to talk enthusiastically about equipment, what shots to take, and where to go as soon as they landed. This made Hannah feel better, just as Dylan intended. If there was one thing Dylan hated, it’s seeing an already miserable person kicked when they’re down. Life was already bleak; a little fun wouldn’t hurt. To Dylan, Archie and Hannah were the most important people in the office, and he would protect these two fellow misfits with his life.

He couldn’t say the same for the other people in the office, however. Case in point: Mel, who, in the middle of their conversation, sat beside them in the break room.

“I sent you an email,” Mel greeted them. Dylan and Hannah looked at her blankly. Archie instantly checked his phone.

“Oh, I got it,” Archie said.

“Hey, what did I teach you? No work at the dinner table,” said Dylan to Archie. Then he turned to Mel. “Come on, Mel. Couldn’t that wait?”

“If you read the email, you would know that it couldn’t,” said Mel matter-of-factly, biting into her sandwich.

“Well, you’re here now. Could you at least tell us?” asked Dylan. Mel held up a finger while she chewed her sandwich slowly. Her three coworkers leaned forward, anticipating what she had to say. Finally, after chewing for what seemed like an eternity she swallowed what must have been a slush of a sandwich.

“We have a meeting after lunch,” said Mel. “1PM.”

“What!?” said Dylan.

“Ray called the meeting,” said Mel, though Dylan was sure that it was Mel who suggested it.

“But I have a video to edit! I wanted to get it done before the long weekend. I don’t want to have to work tomorrow,” complained Dylan.

“Then maybe you should have done that first before watching your video in the office,” said Mel.

“How did you– Never mind.” To Dylan, Mel was a snake. She was the sly type of officemate who had a way of knowing things, the kind of person who got her way through unnoticeable, but strategic movements. For example, Mel was the quickest person in the office to be promoted to a managerial position. For some reason, Ray seemed to be under her grasp. Mel was also responsible for a few workers who were fired from the office in the past 4 years. While Dylan had mixed feelings about this woman, and even though he had been in the company longer than she was, he had to make sure to be on her good side.

“What’s the meeting about?” Dylan tried to ask calmly.

“Social media trends,” said Mel.

“Like what?” Dylan asked.

“People tend to click on pictures of Ray more. You need to get more good angles of him so Tim has more thumbnail options,” said Mel. “That kind of stuff.”

“Okay,” said Dylan. “Anything else I should know?”

“Let’s save it for later. No work at the lunchtable,” said Mel, now focused on her sandwich, which looked huge compared to her tiny hands. Dylan couldn’t believe that such a small woman could get on his nerves.

HOW LONG WILL THIS MEETING EVEN TAKE? WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL US EARLIER? AREN’T YOU AWARE THAT WE HAVE OUR OWN SCHEDULES TO FOLLOW? COULDN’T YOU JUST SEND THIS AS AN EMAIL!? Dylan wanted to shout all these, but stopped himself. Instead, he exchanged annoyed looks with his two only friends as they ate in silence.

“By the way,” said Mel, mid-chew, “Have you guys seen Tim and Lyka?”

“Tim and who?” asked Hannah.

“The new hire.”

“Oooh,” the three friends said in unison.

“That’s her name,” said Archie.

“Why were you curious?” said Dylan, raising his eyebrows.

“Ehh, not my type,” Archie said. “A bit too energetic for me. Good for content, though. She’s great at interviews.”

“Have you noticed that she and Tim aren’t in the breakroom?” said Mel, finally looking at them, wide-eyed. He tried to put the pieces together. While he generally disliked Mel, he didn’t mind getting some office gossip from her.

“That is curious…” said Dylan. “Are they…?”

Mel nodded slowly, gripping her sandwich more tightly.

“But doesn’t Time have…?” said Hannah.

Mel widened her eyes and nodded more intensely.

“Aaah,” said the three friends in unison.

Ray finally showed up at the 1PM after-lunch meeting. Mel rambled on and on about details Dylan and the whole team already knew; only Ray seemed to listen intently. This could have been an email, Ray thought to himself. At this rate, they would be done by 2:30PM at least. Damn it. Not enough time. He would have to edit the last video at home. Dylan resigned to his fate while the Social Media rambled on in a slow, dreary pace. It was the perfect time to daydream.

While Dylan worked his butt off to make someone else's dreams come true, he had dreams of his own. When he isn't busy surviving, he writes songs - songs about the entirety of his experience. Dylan’s first song was about Sophie, when they were both in high school. It was a song called “Angel.” He could barely remember the words now; he would rather not remember.

When Sophie left to work abroad after college, Dylan wrote extensively about pain and heartbreak, though not once referring to Sophie. He never finished these songs, and almost gave up on music in 2020. It was during that time that he retreated to the world of video games, having no desire to do anything except escape into a magical world within his laptop screen. But in 2021, when Dylan had already moved out, he found the inspiration to write once again. Now, his notebook is full of finished and half-finished songs. Some songs are about the commuting experience, some are about his officemates.

Dylan is by no means a professional. He has a private music account buried somewhere on the Internet. And while he sometimes dreams of playing for a crowd of thousands, he knows he lacks the skill and the confidence to do so. He likes to play pretend, though, singing for an imaginary crowd whenever he writes songs in his room.

Dylan’s late dad, Bobby, was a huge fan of folk music – hence his name. Dylan adopted this love for lyrically-driven acoustic music, appreciating the intricacy of the genre: the subtle wordplay, the sound of a mic’d up guitar, the beauty of voice singing ever so slightly offkey that pitch correction would only ruin. There was beauty in being human, rough edges and all. Dylan and his dad, when he was still alive, used to watch live shows together and talk about all the latest bands. Their absolute favorite local musician was a solo artist who called himself Timid Train, who sang folk songs about the pain of living in the 21st Century and had exactly 1,423 likes on his social media page.

As Dylan continued to daydream, he took quick notice of the stats and numbers Mel showed on screen. Then he remembered music which he thought was robotic and disingenuous: local pop music. The thought of it made Dylan angrier than the meeting he was in now (currently still going at 1:35PM). He thought of all the songs these pop artists stole from artists abroad. If not whole songs, then exact melodies or parts of lyrics. If not exact melodies or parts of lyrics, very obvious themes. For Dylan, local music lacked originality and passion.

Another thing that irked him about local pop music was a focus on external beauty rather than internal depth. In the pop world, it didn’t matter if you couldn’t sing; all that mattered is if you looked good. Good-looking pop artists had their voices pitch-corrected, and the talented vocalists had their faces plastic-molded. Pop songs were generally fun to listen to in the background, but Dylan could think of none that spoke to his soul.

He was heartbroken that Timid Train hadn’t released any new music since 2019, and doubted if he ever would. Because that kind of music doesn’t sell. In Dylan’s world, music has ceased to be art meant to express the soul; it has become just another “content” to consume. Consuming content is all people do nowadays. They watch video “content” to learn about what clothes to wear, to know what books to read, to find out what everyone is watching on their streaming apps. They treat music as “content” to curate and flaunt to others, listening to certain artists not because they like the sounds they hear, but because everyone else seems to like it, too. Content content content. Dylan pondered on his soulless world and concluded that maybe the world really did end in 2020, and we’re all just living in hell.

Dylan came back from his daydream and looked at the last slides of Mel’s presentation. It was almost a quarter past 2. He became aware of his surroundings once again, and was reminded that he had a part to play in this soullessness. He had no passion about Sunshine City Studio; he’s part of this company because people pay attention to “content” like the ones they make. And attention, through advertisements, turns into money – money that pays his bills, money that feeds him, money that allows him to experience some material comfort in a soulless world. Was he a hypocrite to hate the system he has helped propagate for the past 4 years? Would he have to make content for the next four years? Surely there was something better out there. But what?

The meeting ended at 2:34PM, with no one gaining anything new and valuable. They went back to their seats and went to work. Dylan went back to work. Surprisingly, he finished editing the whole video complete with subtitles. He did this with relative ease on autopilot, uploaded the file online, and waited for the clock to strike 6:00PM.

“Hey,” Archie said. “You okay, Mr. Boss, Sir?”

Dylan looked at Archie on his right, and realized that work was over. “Oh, what? Yeah, I’m okay.”

“You seem spaced out,” said Archie.

“Just thinking about some things,” explained Dylan. He diverted attention to work. “Hey, the vlog for next-next week is ready for posting. You could go ahead and schedule that whenever you want.”

“Sure,” said Archie, looking concerned, but unsure how to ask his senior. Just minutes ago, they were teasing each other, and now his manager seemed to lack life. There was a blankness in Dylan’s eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, kid,” Dylan said. He had a lot of shame in his system already. Confiding in Archie would just add to that. He forced a smile that looked convincingly genuine. “Hey, I’m fine, Arch. Just tired.”

“Okay,” Archie said, seemingly convinced.

“See you next week?” Dylan said.

“See ya, boss!” Archie

On the way home, Dylan fell asleep on the train again. He dreamt about a well in the middle of the desert, with a string that seemed to be attached to a bucket at the very bottom. Dylan walked towards the well and wrapped his hands around the string. He pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and pulled for what seemed like hours. Finally, he caught sight of the bucket at the mouth of the well; however, the bucket was dry and empty.

Thirsty, he looked around for another well, or any water source for that matter, but couldn’t find any. He walked through the vast desert, until he caught sight of a figure with a shovel digging a hole in the ground. It was his father. His mother was close by, giving her husband a gourd bottle full of water as he tried to dig a new source. His mother looked at him and brought the gourd to her son instead, directly to his mouth. Dylan was initially ashamed, but remembered how thirsty he was. So he drank and drank and drank. And when his thirst was quenched, his father handed him another shovel. They dug together.