Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and

Host: The sun had long slipped beneath the horizon, leaving the city bathed in the dull, golden afterglow of streetlights. The air was heavy with rain, the kind that hangs before it finally falls, wrapping the world in a slow, waiting hush.

In a narrow diner off a forgotten avenue, the old neon sign buzzed and flickered — “OPEN 24 HOURS” — though it looked like it barely meant it. Inside, Jack and Jeeny sat across from each other in a corner booth, their faces half-lit by the reflection of a jukebox cycling through songs no one had chosen.

Host: The quote had been spoken earlier — almost accidentally — when a news story about a neighborhood shooting had played on the little TV above the counter. Will Smith’s words still hung in the air like the lingering smoke of something that had burned too long:

*“Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and