What?

A young man let out a sigh as he splashed cold water on his face. Fighting off his drowsiness from working late hours.

He had been forced to stay even later the night before as his co-workers decided to throw him a resignation party.

"Thank God that's over!" He said to his reflection, wincing from the pounding in his head.

He wasn't ugly by any means with shaggy brown hair and light brown eyes. His face was rather lean with a long jaw and a rather large nose. He liked to consider himself on the upper side of average.

"You've worked your ass off to save up. Now you're your own boss. The building is ready, you just need inventory." He states, staring into his own eyes as if attempting to give himself a pep talk.

"What am I doing?" He questions himself with a sigh.

"Come on Jack get it together. Make your dreams come true." He tells himself as he splashed some more water in his face.

Jack grabs a towel and dries off while walking out of the bathroom. Entering his living room he looks around his apartment.

There were cardboard boxes stacked everywhere. He had everything planned. He saved money pinching pennies wherever he could.

He went to college for a history degree, while working as grunt labor for a museum. A move this here, move that there kind of thing. When there wasn't anything else to move he acted as a janitor.

Long hours, hard work, a lot of studies, and years later. He finally saved up enough to complete his dream. To open his own little antique shop.

Sure he probably could have started one a few years earlier. But he wanted to have the knowledge and confidence to really succeed.

Finally at twenty eight years old he was ready. He tendered his resignation, bought an old building and hired a crew to renovate.

Then last night as he was celebrating, he was informed that the shop was ready. Ecstatic he drank himself into a stupor and was soon unconscious.

His boss had been kind enough to drag him home in a cab. He had woke up long enough to open the door and reach his bed. Before returning to his blissful unconsciousness.

Jack scratched the stubble on his face as he tried to settle his nervous excitement. He changed clothes quickly, as he wanted to check out his new shop. He almost tripped as he rushed out the front door only to rush back in to grab his wallet.

He flagged down a cab and told the driver the address.

"Y'ah sure that's ere ya wanna go?" The driver asked.

"Yes, it's going to be my store. They finished the renovations last night. I want to check it out." Jack replied with a smile.

"Hmm, a'right" the driver said as he put the car in gear and pulled out into traffic.

The ride was short as the building was only a few miles away from Jack's apartment. It cost him quite a bit of his savings to buy a small building in the downtown area.

They got caught up in traffic as they got closer to the shop. As they arrived Jack's face paled. He threw some cash to the driver as he rushed out of the car.

There was a fire truck parked in front of his shop. Firemen were rushing about hauling hoses and spraying water on the ember's.

"What the hell?" Jack was stunned years of planning gone. The building he had invested everything into... gone. It was just to much to take in. He collapsed to his knees in shock.

He sat there at the side of the road for hours just watching the smoke billow out of the broken windows. He couldn't believe it, all of his plans his dreams just went up in smoke. Poof gone like a bad dream.

"I wish this was just a bad dream." he spoke aloud as he put his head in his hands and leaned over his knees. "If only it was a dream... What do I do now?"

As Jack was contemplating his future his phone began to ring. He thought about ignoring but realized it might be important.

"Hello? Jack Addams here may I ask who's calling?" He questioned.

"Hello! This is fire chief Alex Rodgers. I'm sorry to inform you that there has been a fire."

Jack interrupted him, "I'm well aware of that, I've been watching your crews efforts for the last few hours."

Chief Rodgers was silent for a moment before replying, "I see. Well, I can at least tell you that we know the cause. The fire started due to a fault in the fuse panel. We believe it was a bad installation."

Jack was surprised they had been able to find the cause so soon. He hadn't even thought about the cause. This information opened up new options for him.

"Thank you for telling me. I have to go now." Jack knew what he had to do next so he quickly said goodbye.

Jack spent the next six months in contact with a lawyer. He had threatened the construction company with a lawsuit, but agreed to settle outside of court.

The company had offered to pay him a third of his shops worth as well as sign over the deed to another building in a different location.

It took a lot of negotiation and meetings before he finally agreed on the deal. The only thing he was unhappy about was that he had not been able to inspect the building himself. Though he did have safety inspectors check it, he himself had only seen pictures.

Jack let out a sigh of relief after signing the paperwork and receiving the deed. It was finally over. No more meeting's, no more negotiations, no more waiting. He could finally open his shop.

"No more setback's!" Jack declared. He called a moving company to get all of the boxes from his apartment. Most of them were filled with small knick-knacks and popular memorobillia. Jack had collected them for his shop thinking they would sell easily.

It took Jack two days to arrange everything on their shelves, rearrange the furniture, and decorate to his liking. It was late in the evening when he finished.

Tired yet happy, he decided to do a walk-through to be sure everything was ready to open in the morning. As he finished checking the store room he noticed a slightly sweet smelling smoke in the air.

Jack panicked. Why was there smoke? He rarely smoked and he never smoked inside. He grabbed a small fire extinguisher and followed the scent.

The smell led him to the far wall. He began to see a thin plume of smoke floating up from behind a shelf. Anxiety attacked him as he set aside the fire extinguisher and grabbed the shelf.

He heaved against it to try and reach what was burning. His panic lent him strength against the heavy steel shelving. It gave a groan as it slowly slid away from the wall. He felt a sharp pain in his right hand as it slipped down a sharp edge.

Jack just grit his teeth and pulled harder. Finally the shelf had moved far enough that he could crouch behind it. Unable to see well in the shadows of the shelf he grabbed the fire extinguisher with one hand and used his phone as a flashlight.

Using the light he scanned the floor searching following the thin trail of smoke. He set the extinguisher aside again as he realized there was no fire. He saw something glint in the light of his phone.

Jack reached down to pick up that shiny object. He was confused. It was an old pipe almost nine inches long slender like it was made for a woman.

He picked the pipe up, it was cold to the touch. 'If it's cold it couldn't have been lit could it?' He thought.

His hand had begun to ache so he decided to take the pipe into with him. He set the pipe on the counter next to the register as he collected his first aid kit to treat his hand.

The cut was shallow and only bled a little. He used some disinfectant and put a bandage around it before looking at the pipe. Under the bright lights of the shop he realized both ends were made of solid silver.

The bowl and the mouth piece were connected by a stem of wood painted in red. The bowl seemed rather small and shallow, what really confused him was that it was empty.

'How was there smoke with nothing to burn?' He wondered. His fingers traced over the patterns on the silver. It was an odd smoke like design, they weren't engraved bet raised almost as if it was cast in a mold that way.

The pipe showed it's age the paint had turned dark the silver was slightly tarnished. Jack checked his phone and found that it was a Japanese style pipe called a kiseru.

It showed signs of use such as slight teeth marks on the mouth piece and tobacco residue in the bowl. Lifting it to his nose he took a small whiff near the bowl.

The slightly sweet scent of the smoke earlier tickled his nostrils. Still confused he set the pipe back down. Feeling tired he rested his head in his arms while staring at the pipe. Jack never noticed as he fell asleep.

If someone was there they might have heard a woman's voice softly say, "Nothing in this world is coincidence. Everything is inevitable."

The pipe glowed faintly a few drops of blood showed darkly on its red stem before seeming to disappear.