An alleyway of shops, like a tunnel they sit on either side of me as I walk. There is a feint warmth of the lights on my skin as they rain down on me from above. I notice the usual pushing and fight for purchase among the average paying customer. The average Joe. At the doors to these rooms, where sales are pushed forward and items are bartered for, the sale assistants are stood. They welcome each person through the door with a smile and “hello” before they return to their normal tiresome look, the smile already gone. As I continue down the familiar path, I ignore the stores that don’t appeal to me, refusing to look the staff on the door in the eye as they call to me. It’s a theatre for merchants, it’s their stage, their performance. Their products are on display in the windows, enticing me to enter, and the merchants are like the ring masters of a freak show willing me in to see the performers, but my will is strong and I will not be led astray. However I’ve seen it all before and today my destination lies elsewhere, in fact just a little further up and onto the second floor. I reach the steps and begin the climb, remembering to hold onto the banister and staying to the left hand side, because even on here, the stairs, average Joe continues his fight with not a care for anyone else but himself. Finally I can see the top few steps and my pace quickens, so much so that I pass another entity on the way. The second floor opens up for viewing and even the floor tiles seem cleaner than the lower. My goal reached, I look at where I planned my journey’s end. Even as I enter I know it’s not the end, but merely the beginning and by looking in the window I know what’s in store for me, but I go anyway, wallet in hand.