This, That, and the Other

Gary felt as if he were free-falling, heading straight for the sidewalk below him when he awoke from his nightmare just before he splattered all over the concrete.

He sat up in bed, his sheets soaked by his sweat. He got up and went to his bathroom to wash his face with cold water and to get his bearings. Today was his day in court, and Gary was facing charges for having hatched an intricate scheme to take money from his gullible older clients by claiming he was an aficionado in the area of valuable antiquities.

Unfortunately, in some seemingly arbitrary case of bad luck, one of Gary’s victims happened to be a true expert in antiques and quickly realized that he and Gary’s other elderly clients had been duped. The man called the authorities and Gary was arrested.

Gary was out on bail, but as he stood in the bathroom looking at his reflection in the mirror, he sensed that his dream was a portend of what would happen during the trial.

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Written for these daily prompts: E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (free-fall), Your Daily Word Prompt (concrete), The Daily Spur (bathroom), Ragtag Daily Prompt (intricate), Fandango’s One Word Challenge (aficionado), and Word of the Day Challenge (arbitrary).