Alan was a man whose entire livelihood depended on his hands. This is true for most people, but especially for a programmer. Alan spent hours feeding lines of coding into his computer, and even then, it rarely worked on the first run. Or the second, or the third, for that matter.

Kevin didn't seem to have this difficulty. His programs were often flawless, perfect in less than half the time it took Alan to write them. He couldn't help but envy his gifted friend- How did he do it?

One day, he mustered the courage to ask him. Kevin grinned, and told him to stop by the old arcade. That was the first time Alan entered the grid. He had been shocked, amazed. Kevin took him immediately to an empty space, where the only things around were the smooth black tiles and endless black skies.

"It's really simple. You do this." Kevin waved his hands around theatrically. Alan was sure that part was less necessary than expected. Kevin then pressed his palms to the ground and paused, his eyes closed and focused. Alan suddenly felt very awkward, as though he had wandered into a sacred ceremony.

Then, something began to rise. Just before Kevin's fingertips, Alan saw a man rising slowly from the ground, phasing through like a ghost or that girl from the mutant comics Kevin's son liked to read.

"Your name is Tag." Kevin said authoritively. "You are a tour guide."

"Am I?" The man said, puzzled.

"Yup. How about you show us around?"

The man suddenly seemed to snap into focus. "Of course. Right this way, please."

Alan stared, dumbfounded. Kevin slid an arm around his friend's shoulder. "Don't worry. I just figured you'd like to look around before we settled down to this. I'll give you a better demonstration when we're done."

The Grid was beautiful, or at least, Alan thought so. Still, he couldn't help but feel out of place there, unlike Kevin, who conversed and mingled with programs as though he were more pixels than flesh. And despite Kevin's insistence otherwise, Alan never got the hang of just summoning programs. It just didn't seem to work for him. Kevin did it with such ease, Alan felt ashamed to even call himself user when he entered the Grid.

Alan made a living with his hands. But sometimes, he couldn't help but wonder if there was something wrong with them.