"I was a failure. I hardly ever noticed whether the sun was shining, because I had no time.
"My parents couldn't support me, and I wasn't very well educated. I was alone in the city, searching for a future.
"I applied for plenty of jobs, but nobody hired me. Perhaps nobody liked someone who wasn't good with words, didn't enjoy communicating, and hadn't shown sufficient ability.
"For three whole days, I ate only two loaves of bread. Hunger kept me awake at night. Luckily, I'd paid a month's rent in advance, so I could keep living in that dark basement instead of having to endure the unusually bitter winter wind outside.
"Finally, I found a job keeping watch at a hospital at night-watching over its morgue.
"The hospital at night was even colder than I'd imagined. The wall lamps in the corridors weren't lit, and everything was dim. I could only rely on the little light spilling out of the rooms to see where I was stepping.
"It smelled terrible there. From time to time, dead people would arrive zipped into body bags, and we'd help carry them into the morgue.
"It wasn't a very good job, but at least it let me afford bread. I could also use my free time at night to study. After all, few people wanted to visit the morgue unless a body needed to be delivered or taken away for cremation. Of course, I still didn't have enough money to buy books, and for now, I couldn't see any hope of saving any.
"I had to thank my predecessor. If he hadn't suddenly quit, I might not even have landed a job like this.
"I dreamed of being able to rotate onto the day shift. Always sleeping when the sun came up and waking