Originally published in Tales from the Canyons of the Damned #9

Maybe we have to die to experience this life.

Walter Cartright is an obsessed man. His only obsession comes in the form of paper that are converted to ones and zeros on a bank statement. Walter has always been very good at gathering Ones, and Zeros.

His son Eric comes to see him one day to ask Walter if he might part from some of his ones and zeros, and they have a long overdue conversation. A conversation that will make them both see that what they think of as reality is merely an exercise in perception.

There is so much we don’t know about who we really are. Why are we here? Where did we come from? Is all of this real? Would we even know if all of this was real? Maybe we are just tourists with sock sandals, on a long holiday.