‘The Man Who Has Everything (and Nothing)’
Artist: Keith Edwards
The Man Who Has Everything (and Nothing)
He’s the man everyone envies.
His social media shows it all. Fancy cars, private jets. Yacht parties soaked in champagne. Beautiful women fawning over him. He alternates between living in Miami and LA, moving between the two with the same ruthless efficiency that built his fortune. Entrepreneur. Investor. Influencer. Self-made all the way. Millions of followers think he’s living the dream. Women want him. Men want to be him. But the dream is really a nightmare. And he’s only just starting to realize it.
It started early on. The absent father, only present when drunk. The belt. The creeping dread of knowing when shit would hit the fan. The broken mother, subject to sudden mood swings. Warm and loving one day, cold and distant the next. Before he hit 10, he already knew: survival was about being smart. Being good wasn’t good enough. It was about reading the room and knowing the exits. Knowing when to fight and when to retreat. His world became Darwinian. Only the fittest survived. And so, he became exactly that. Not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. He excelled in school. Then work. From there he decided he’d be his own boss, creating and maintaining his own empire.
But for all the victories he achieved, he felt less. Been there, done that. He kept going, trying to fight off the hollow feeling within. After all, what else is there?
Tonight, the party’s in full swing. Pretty people everywhere. Neon lights and house music. The booze is flowing and it’s snowing too. Everyone’s living their best life. He moves through it all with ease. Sharp suit. Expensive watch. He’s dressed to the nines. Every conversation is one he’s had before: the script’s been in his head for years. Still, something’s wrong tonight. He can feel it. There’s something simmering beneath the surface, something he can’t explain. His patience has worn thin. If he interacts with one more person pretending to be a close friend of his, he’ll lose it.
He escapes to a quiet corner, whiskey in hand. The cool evening breeze isn’t refreshing. It’s sobering. He stares off into the horizon. Miami’s glittering as always. The empty connections? The fake laughter? His own image? They’re all collapsing now. This man who seemingly has it all has come to a startling realization: This isn’t it. None of it is. The inside voice is loud tonight.
“Who are you REALLY without all of this?”
Even with the perfect lifestyle, the Machiavellian mindset, the carefully curated image…there really is nothing. For the first time in years, he doesn’t want to celebrate. What he really wants is himself. There’s just one problem: he doesn’t know where the boy who lost his childhood went. He checks his phone. A million notifications. None important. He decides to leave, but not before asking himself:
If I gave up my soul in order to get here, is it too late to get it back?
Ryan Rahman is a writer based in Orlando, Florida. His works have appeared in Beyond Words Magazine, The Stardust Review, Half and One, BarBar, Humans of The World, WILDsound Writing Festival (Festival for Poetry), Wingless Dreamer Publisher, Moonstone Arts Center, Poets Choice, and The Words Faire. When he’s not writing, Ryan enjoys reading, listening to music, watching movies, and traveling.
