appeared as a single frame: a photograph of a movie theater, empty, seats torn, screen cracked. Then it moved. Slowly, the camera tracked down the aisle. Dust swirled in projector light. On the screen, a film was already playing: Leo’s life. Not the highlights. The moments between. The time he almost called his father but hung up. The afternoon he stood outside his wife’s office and left without knocking. The evening he deleted an email from an old friend because he was “too tired.”

The man turned. It was Leo, but twenty years older. He didn’t speak. He just pointed at the screen. On it, a younger Leo was walking into his apartment, keys in hand, a decision hanging in the air: call her back or don’t. The older Leo shook his head slowly. Then he pointed again—not at the screen, but past it. At the real Leo. At the pause button of his own life.

The camera reached the front row. A man sat there, alone. Older. Bald. Same gray sweater Leo wore now.