When the cab turned the corner, Adam considered jumping out of it, but the blurry darkness outside changed his mind. Beyond his window, the blackness, as thick as the edges of outer space, made it impossible to tell how fast they were going.

How did I not notice it? Adam asked himself, trying to get his bearings. This man is the plumber!

His breath was racing now. A glance at the clock on his cellphone startled him further; Adam had slept for an hour. In his agitation, he convinced himself he had to do something. Anything!

"Pull over."

"In this alley?" The taxicab driver looked at Adam through the rear-view mirror. "Aren't you going to Sambil?"

He seems unarmed, and if we fight, at least it's one on one. Don't let him take you to his destination, wherever that is.

"Stop the damn car!" Adam grabbed him by the throat. "Now!"

The taxi driver slammed the brake to the floor, and the tires screeched on the pavement. Adam felt a thump in his legs that jerked him all the way to the chest when the Sedan drove over the sidewalk. The cab hadn't entirely stopped when the driver turned around, wild-eyed. "Are you out of your fucking mind?"

"No," Adam replied. "But, I want you out of mine."

Before Adam moved to get out of the car, the man seized his forearm and gave a tremendous yank. "Not without paying me, asshole."

Is he robbing me?

Perhaps it was the same rush of adrenaline that was pumping his chest up and down that made Adam realize, in an instant, that this was not a robbery or kidnapping. On the contrary, the strained driver's voice sounded like someone defending himself, and his chalk-pale face—a face that didn't resemble the plumber's at all, had fear written all over it.

No way. They looked identical a second ago.

With his body bathed in a cold sweat, Adam apologized and gave the driver all the cash he had on him.

You yelled at him. You almost made him crash! As soon as he got out of the cab, Adam figured out where he was and even recognized a little restaurant around the corner where he had dinner with Evelia on their third date. And the mall is not that far. He did what you told him, and you attacked him. What's wrong with you?

The man drove away, cursing as loud as he could, leaving Adam more ashamed and confused than he'd ever been in his life.

"Great!" Adam said. "Live your worst nightmare, why don't you. Let's stroll around Caracas after dark."

As it always happened when Adam stepped out of his little bubble of normalcy, he came full face with the reality that the city he used to love didn't exist anymore. It became even more evident with his every hurried step that nothing about the lives of the people who lived here was ordinary. He glanced at the gated residential buildings on either side of the street; most seemed partially abandoned and in serious need of a coat of paint.

Adam resisted the temptation to run through the stretches where the streetlights were dead, especially around more commercial areas. It still angered him to this day, seeing so many shuttered businesses and vacant stores.

"I'm a specter in a ghost town," Adam said to himself.

About five blocks further up, Adam got a glimpse at slums stretching through the valley that surrounded the city. In the distance, the countless tiny yellow lights of the makeshift homes half-balanced against the hillside made it seem like all the stars had spilled over the horizon, leaving the black sky above the mountains bare and lifeless. A world upside down.

Every minute or so, a car would tear through the eerie stillness of the empty streets. And whenever a handful of solitary figures walked past him, they only spoke in hushed tones. Something finally resembling the sound of the buzzing Caracas of yore greeted Adam when he reached Libertador Avenue. Compared to the ominous silence of the neighborhood he left behind, he welcomed the noise and coming and going of vehicles.

Frustration rose in his throat, however. The Sambil was still there. The same imposing structure with a facade of turquoise reflective glass panels flanked by palm trees, the same place Adam had loved since it opened its doors in 1998—except that it wasn't a mall anymore. A nearby billboard stated that the government had expropriated it, transforming it into an office building that only held businesses sanctioned by the ruling party.

And it was closed.

If he believed in karma, Adam would have sworn that the universe was punishing him for what he had done to that poor taxi driver. With not a single ATM in sight, all hope of buying a new power switch had died.

Every tick of the clock worried him more and more as he walked down the street, hoping to find a bank. As long as his pockets remained empty, he was stranded.

None of the automated teller machines at Banesco worked. Then, a few blocks from the first bank, the ATM refused to dispense any money. Since Adam had read online about cash shortages a few days ago, he decided only to attempt to fill in his wallet one more time before taking the bus.

The last ATM in the area was in a big niche with crystal doors next to a gas station. Adam didn't dare come near it as a homeless man was puking inside of it, and worms squirmed in his dark, bloody vomit all over the floor.

That sight exceeded by far what Adam could stomach.

Karma or not, that night, the world was against him. Or so he feared. His best option would be to go back to his place and try to fix this mess in the morning when the sun kept most of this madness at bay.