"Thou shall not cheat", it was the starting phrase of a magnificent piece of corporate hide and seek. For the last thirty minutes, I had been struggling with the hardcover book. It sat attached to the fence with a very rusty chain and had appeared after filling out the final form. It was a grant piece of trying to stay blame free as they tinkered with your brain to their heart's content. Not that I cared too much. I would sell my hemorrhoid free butthole to a vindictive feminist with a ridiculously long strap-on, to reunite with the soft cheeks of nature's most wondrous creation.  

That nobody bothered reading them anymore didn't help my attention span either. The government had made this beautiful law for terms and conditions free working environments. The only reason I was battling my way through it was that I didn't put too much trust in large bodies of power hungry people. Meaning I didn't want to be in a high stakes power struggle about my freedom to choose what I did sixteen hours a day.

I had the days of corporate enslavement fresh in mind, and it now motivated me to read the boring pages word for word.

The minutes crawled passed and on more than one occasion I could hear Little human ask me if I was all right. About halfway through my torment, a basket had a appeared on the shit gate. The words "Yes I accept" written on it. When I finished and put the book into the basket, the world seemed to halt. A moment seemed to pass before the eyesore faded out of sight and a plain of the most wonderful green remained.

It was gorgeous. Livid green, waving in the cool breeze that blew past me from behind, lifting my coat. The fresh smell of spring rain combined with fresh mowed blades of dew covered grass. It made me hold my breath for a second. I fell to my knees, my hands touching the wet grass with a reverence that could compare to any religion. A small choke grabbed me by the throat as my emotion got the better of me.  

I understood. Enlightenment struck me.

Digitization was real. The feeling, the smell, the wetness on my skin, the slight sucking sound of the mud embracing my kneecaps. As if embracing a long-lost lover.  

Then,realization came and I sat with my hands in the grass, dumbfounded. I had spent two weeks tormenting myself over the loss of said long-lost lover for nothing.  

As I sat there on my hands and knees, controlling my emotions by the barest thread, it turned. It was faint at first, a small patch about ten meters to my left losing some of its luster. A patch right in front of me losing some of its density. Had it not been my sole companion for most of my life I would have missed the signs of decay.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"No..," I whispered as I crawled to a spot that was browning bit by bit. I took two handfuls of its blades into my hands and tried to make it stop. It didn't. The blades turned brown, lacking any sign of its joyous luster it showed but ten seconds ago.

I kept staring not comprehending what was happening. A tear went unnoticed as it made its descent into my bearded cheeks. I tried to find the courage to look around me. I let loose of the blades of grass as they fell from my fingers and into their still attached counterparts. In my desperation, I had torn out so much beauty that my heart ached at my foolishness. 

"You old fool..," I whispered as my head lifted in a sluggish motion. Looking around at the brown sea of blades that held so little comparison to the green lavish sea of love I bathed in.  

"What monster would do such a thing…" I tried to scream but only a whimper left my choked up throat.

It was at this moment a yellow piece of paper floated into the space between my face and my sickly pale lover. On it were simple words written in black fountain pen, "Through effort, anything can be made whole again, even thyself." I grabbed the piece of paper with my wet and muddied fist, crumbling it into a ball as rage made it passed the sadness threatening to drown me.  

"Motherfuckers want to play a game huh? I will wreck your fucking game you useless piece of crap simulator." I stood up and for the first time took in something else then my beloved grass that lay trampled beneath my feet.

The field was a perfect square of about five hundred by five hundred meters. I couldn't be sure but it looked like twenty-five football fields could fit into the square. Which would mean an approximate of around five hundred meters in both directions. I had lived my life on these fields, I was certain I was not far off.  

I stood in the middle, three sides of the plain of brown grass were boxed in by a dense pine forest that looked ready for some advanced chopping. A good start for my revenge plot. The cornering river in the south was a nice contrast to the wall of trees even if I had yet to think of a use for the body of water. But I had time. If there was one thing us seniors had, it was time on our hands.

I looked again at my best friend who lay in the mud like it was ready to breathe its last breath. It wasn't real, but that didn't mean anything to me. This was as close to real I would ever come again.

Not even noticing the absence of straining muscles and complaining joints, I went through my knees and took a single blade of grass into my hand. "I will get you back to that beautiful self you once were, I promise."  I whispered to it.

And with that, I got up walked towards the only building in the brown sea. A small wooden shed that looked ready to give up on life. It was time to get to work.