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with what I feel. I learned to be comfortable with who I was, to not hide from what was inside. You should give it a try. You’d be surprised what might happen.”
    She began to blush as a smile formed on her face. She turned her head to the left to keep her rapidly blinking eyes out of his view and said, “you know, the things you say are funny in a sort of profound way. We should be friends. Yes. It has been decided.”
    “Friends?” said Jagz. “But we are friends. You just friended me on Quacker.”
    “See, there you go again with your jokes. No, I mean like real friends silly—in the physical dimension. Hello. Earth to Jagz!”
    An actual friend? Jagz thought. He almost forgot that they existed. What would that really mean? What would they do? All of his, and just about anyone else’s, interactions were through a screen. It was just easier that way. Somehow, it felt a little less real, a little safer. Speaking with and spending time with someone in person felt unsettling, at best , he thought.
    But then again, thinking about speaking with her, speaking with the others from today, the secretary at Unified Webworks, Mr. Herd, hell, he even spoke face to face with an Alien! And what’s more, he had thoughts that he wasn’t so eager to share with his Quacker following. But if he couldn’t share everything with them, then who would he turn to? It was all too much. He had to get out of there and take some UrDg. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had with her at that very moment and he didn’t want to risk losing it.
    “I must be getting back to work. Or to something. Yes, work, that’s what I was doing before I was contacted,” said Jagz as though he forgot what he was trying to say.
    “Contacted? What do you mean? By whom?”
    “Oh, it doesn’t matter,” said Jagz, trying to think of a way to change the subject. He wasn’t ready to share what he had heard with anyone, let alone a stranger. However, he did feel as though she knew him more than anyone had before. “Besides, I forgot my UrDg, so I must be getting home.”
    “You still take that stuff? I’ve got something way better. Are you hungry?” she said. “I have this great meal combination that I’m just dying to share with someone!”
    “I suppose I could experience some food right now. Come to think of it, I don’t think I had time for breakfast,” Jagz said as he remembered that he was promised some real food, but either ran out too quickly or it was just bait to get him to come to Unified Webworks.
    Jagz and Shera walked together through a park, past all of the others who were mindlessly walking the path that their device laid out for them.
    “Look at everyone. So tapped in, completely consumed by their interweb actions, so oblivious to the world around them. You know, I bet they’d walk off of a cliff if their device told them to,” said Shera.
    Jagz let out a short and awkward, but genius laugh, considering he had not laughed authen-tically in a long time.
    They continued walking, Shera guiding Jagz effortlessly without depending on her device. He trusted that she knew where they were going. He wasn’t one for ignoring his device, but he managed to find the mute button and was able to focus on something other than himself as he strolled down the street, taking in the world around him.
    After a few minutes, Shera spotted a street that she said led to the heart of the park, although park wasn’t necessarily the right way to describe what it was, it was really just the small amount of greenery left in a city laid deep with electronics.
    They walked through a row of beautifully placed trees, so perfectly aligned, so wonderfully identical that someone from another time might have misjudged them for something entirely different than actual forest life. Side by side, they strolled without a care in the world.
    Jagz, assuming that they were simply passing through the park and heading downtown to her home, got more and more confused