£462. Equivalent to: 18 lunches with colleagues, 11 therapy sessions, or the cost of a second-hand bicycle that would make you happier and healthier for the entire commute.
Mark scrolled. At the bottom, in small, brutal typewriter font, was a field marked . rail season ticket calculator
He typed: West Tilford → Central.
Two weeks later, Mark handed in his notice. He didn’t move to Renton Junction. He took a 20% pay cut for a job a fifteen-minute walk from his house. The new office had a broken kettle and a manager who cried during quarterly reviews. But Mark walked to work. In the morning, he saw birds. He saw gardens. He saw the 07:47 crawl past his street, packed with faces he used to know. At the bottom, in small, brutal typewriter font,