New
Pioneer
Part 4: Two seasons: winter,
and mosquitoes
Dan was
a couple of years older than me, and has lived in the Sydney
area his whole life. I couldn't fathom living in the same
area my whole life. Upstate New York is a dismal place,
full of economically depressed towns and small cities over
which hang endless clouds that form over the Great Lakes.
It only has two seasons: winter, and mosquitoes. The last
time I was there, it was over the Fourth of July. It was
raining, and so cold, I had to wear a jacket. Even the locals
were miserable. The mosquitoes loved it, though.
Like me,
Dan was divorced, but had no kids. He drove a truck for
a living. Being the upwardly mobile career woman that I
was at this point, he seemed so far removed from my daily
existence, I knew that I could open up to him without any
repercussions. I cried on his shoulder when relationships
that I had went sour, and he would always tell me that he
thought those guys were nuts.
Over the
course of the next three years, our e-mails evolved into
chatting on the phone, and then chatting via instant messages.
We would spend hours on Yahoo, flirting and having a great
time yanking on each other's chains. When Web cams became
affordable, we each bought one, and I risked my job, bringing
it to work so that we could chat while I was at my desk.
It's a wonder I didn't get fired. By this time, things were
getting pretty hot and heavy. One of my co-workers warned
me that I could be getting into trouble with the sex slave
trade. After all, I had never actually met Dan in person.
And I was far too smart to fall in love by just communication
alone, wasn't I? And what kind of woman would believe everything
some guy on the other side of the planet tells her via the
Internet?
I was that
kind of woman.
Picture
Page: Somewhere in the back of
my mind
Part 5: A
pioneer in a long line of ancestors
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