Wailing police car sirens echoed between the wet and sticky brick walls of the ally. Muddled light from a crosswalk at the street reflected in a shiny pool of sewage, water and grease. The luminous icon of a walking man, quivered in waves of radiant white like a child splashing in puddles after the rain.

Thunder boomed in the distance and lightning filled the sky in rhythmic flashes. Amid the pulsing shadows lay the figure of a man on his back with his legs twisted to his side; his onetime shiny leather shoes now scratched and scuffed. The tightly tailored formal black jacket and dress pants he had worn were torn and soiled, glistening in grime. Creased, folded fringes of a once white shirt now wrinkled, heaved up and down. An untied bow tie hung from his bruised and bloodied neck.

With a frightening groan he cried out in pain; choking on spit, gasping for air as his firm fisted hand fell from his chest. Splashing open on the asphalt, silvery coins rolled off his fingers; a quarter, two dimes and a nickel.