There once was a girl from one coast and a boy from another coast who started communicating thanks to one of those modern devices called a computer. And from their individual computers, they both signed up for a service that promised to bring love-starved souls together.
She can't remember who wrote to whom first anymore... so much water under that there bridge. What she does remember is that they had oodles in common... he was once a skater in his youth, who spent time with the "great ones" in sunny California... she was once a skate betty in her youth, who spent a great deal of time wishing that the skate boys would do more than just ride their boards and get the occasional splinters in their asses in sunny Florida.
The day they began communicating was years later, after both had been married, become parents, and for differing reasons lost their spouses... her to adultery... him first to adultery, took her back, only to lose her again to a tragic death. Both losses were fairly recent... within the previous year or so.
They shared a love of the band WIRE... she had listed them in her favorites... he was actually wearing a t-shirt from one of their tours in his photo. Every conversation found them finding ways to drop words or phrases from their songs into active use. After a while of typing these things to one another, they progressed to phone calls... long, late-night calls that resulted in scary phone bills, which never seemed to be a deterrent to continued conversation. They spoke for months, a couple of times a week.
They agreed to meet soon... he spoke of a flight to her city... she expressed a desire to see that side of the country. Occasionally he would disappear for a week and she wouldn't hear from him, making her wonder if it was such a good idea... but he always returned to the conversations eventually, and always with some good excuse or another.
The one thing that really evolved, other than passions, in those long phone calls was her knowledge of what happened to his dearly departed and truly EX-wife. She became mildly concerned that perhaps he might not be telling all the truth that there was to tell. Here is what she learned...
After six years of marriage that resulted in one young son, his wife became aloof. In his investigations to figure out where she was spending long hours, he encountered her at a restaurant with another man. He confronted them and she confessed her new love. He told her to break things off or he would take their child and she'd never see him again... so she did break things off, for the time being.
After a few months of marital therapy, she broke down and told her spouse that she could no longer live with him... that they would have to try separation for a while. He moved out and within two weeks that other man moved into his family home. He would come over to pick up his son and have to face this new man fawning over his son and acting like the dad that he wasn't and it angered him with the fire of a thousand suns.
This set up lasted for 8 months or so, until something happened... the story is cloudy here, as no real details were given... but his estranged wife decided she wanted to make things work again. The other man had moved out, so he promptly moved back home again. The two of them re-affirmed their vows in a quiet ceremony. Then a couple of months later, they went on vacation as a family.
The trip took them to a cabin in the woods. Not remote, but in a camping ground where other families mingled, though the cabins were spaced far apart. The wilderness was vast, however, and breath taking. On their last day there, he decided to have a nap in the cabin while his wife and then 5-year-old son took a walk alongside a river and up to some falls.
He claims he heard shouting, which woke him from his nap and when he went to find the source, he heard someone yelling that a woman and son were floating in the river and that 911 needed to be called. He ran to the river to find his wife and son had been pulled out already, but neither was breathing. People were performing life-saving maneuvers, but nothing was happening.
After 30 minutes or so, the paramedics finally arrived. They managed to revive the man's son, but there was nothing they could do about his wife... her neck was broken and she was gone. From what everyone could surmise, though there were no witnesses, his wife and son had gone to the highest point of a cliff overlooking the river, right beside the falls. One or the other must have slipped and both fell the long height into the water, with his wife hitting the bottom and breaking her neck and his son merely falling unconscious and drowning until help arrived.
Hearing this story on first telling was tragic and heart wrenching. But over time and retelling, the curious girl began to ask questions.
"What happened to the boyfriend?"
"Well, he stayed away for a while, but then he came back again," he said. "As a matter of fact, she had gone to lunch with him a couple of times and was feeling torn... I planned our trip to get away from his influence over her, so she could just focus on me and our son. She talked about that guy too much though." Then he fell silent.
In another conversation, she got up the nerve to ask, "Has your son ever spoken about the events of that day? Has he needed therapy for that?"
"No, he's never spoken about it to anyone. Doctors think he has amnesia due to the trauma of the event, but he never speaks of it ever."
She began to put pieces together that didn't seem to fit before and wondered if that fall was entirely accidental.
"Did the police ever question you?" she inquired.
"Why would they? It was an accident and I was asleep in the cabin."
"Oh yes, of course," she feigned, "I just thought it was procedure."
Despite her mind conjuring images of dastardly deeds at the hands of a jilted husband, a la OJ Simpson... she continued to converse and make plans with the West coast boy.
One day, her plans came to fruition. For New Years, she flew out to the other coast to visit a friend from high school, who just happened to live about two hours south of the other boy. He told her that he would come get her and bring her to the beautiful wine valley, where they could have just one glorious day together at last, before she went home.
When she arrived in the far away land, she called the boy, but he didn't answer... so she left him a message. A day went by and he never returned the call... then another day... then another. Finally, it was about to be her last day there so she called again and left another message wondering what happened. After several hours went by, he finally called her back.
He then told her that he couldn't meet with her... and why.
"It would kill my girlfriend. She'd be devastated if she found out."
"Excuse me?" she was shocked. "GIRLFRIEND? When did this happen?"
"We've been dating on-again and off-again since my wife and I had that separation. She's been with me through all of this with me and she moved in about a month ago. She's only 19 and her 20th birthday is in 2 weeks... I couldn't hurt her this way, not on the eve of her special day."
"Um... you do realize that you and I have been talking for several months now and in that time, you never once mentioned a girlfriend... much less a live-in girlfriend. How did you manage not to bring this up?"
"You never asked," he said, rather matter-of-factly. "And I never really thought you'd come out here."
She wished him a nice life with his pubescent girlfriend and went back home to her corner, narrowly escaping a starring role on several episodes of Jerry Springer in one visit.
She still doesn't know what really happened to his deceased wife and she has tried searching for him years down the road, but he doesn't show up anywhere. She did speak with him a couple of times more after a few months had passed, but the conversations were brief and aloof, as would be expected.
She hardly ever speaks of this time with anyone anymore. It just seems too bizarre to be true... though other close encounters have come to push this one to the further recesses of her memory. More on those to follow...
She can't remember who wrote to whom first anymore... so much water under that there bridge. What she does remember is that they had oodles in common... he was once a skater in his youth, who spent time with the "great ones" in sunny California... she was once a skate betty in her youth, who spent a great deal of time wishing that the skate boys would do more than just ride their boards and get the occasional splinters in their asses in sunny Florida.
The day they began communicating was years later, after both had been married, become parents, and for differing reasons lost their spouses... her to adultery... him first to adultery, took her back, only to lose her again to a tragic death. Both losses were fairly recent... within the previous year or so.
They shared a love of the band WIRE... she had listed them in her favorites... he was actually wearing a t-shirt from one of their tours in his photo. Every conversation found them finding ways to drop words or phrases from their songs into active use. After a while of typing these things to one another, they progressed to phone calls... long, late-night calls that resulted in scary phone bills, which never seemed to be a deterrent to continued conversation. They spoke for months, a couple of times a week.
They agreed to meet soon... he spoke of a flight to her city... she expressed a desire to see that side of the country. Occasionally he would disappear for a week and she wouldn't hear from him, making her wonder if it was such a good idea... but he always returned to the conversations eventually, and always with some good excuse or another.
The one thing that really evolved, other than passions, in those long phone calls was her knowledge of what happened to his dearly departed and truly EX-wife. She became mildly concerned that perhaps he might not be telling all the truth that there was to tell. Here is what she learned...
After six years of marriage that resulted in one young son, his wife became aloof. In his investigations to figure out where she was spending long hours, he encountered her at a restaurant with another man. He confronted them and she confessed her new love. He told her to break things off or he would take their child and she'd never see him again... so she did break things off, for the time being.
After a few months of marital therapy, she broke down and told her spouse that she could no longer live with him... that they would have to try separation for a while. He moved out and within two weeks that other man moved into his family home. He would come over to pick up his son and have to face this new man fawning over his son and acting like the dad that he wasn't and it angered him with the fire of a thousand suns.
This set up lasted for 8 months or so, until something happened... the story is cloudy here, as no real details were given... but his estranged wife decided she wanted to make things work again. The other man had moved out, so he promptly moved back home again. The two of them re-affirmed their vows in a quiet ceremony. Then a couple of months later, they went on vacation as a family.
The trip took them to a cabin in the woods. Not remote, but in a camping ground where other families mingled, though the cabins were spaced far apart. The wilderness was vast, however, and breath taking. On their last day there, he decided to have a nap in the cabin while his wife and then 5-year-old son took a walk alongside a river and up to some falls.
He claims he heard shouting, which woke him from his nap and when he went to find the source, he heard someone yelling that a woman and son were floating in the river and that 911 needed to be called. He ran to the river to find his wife and son had been pulled out already, but neither was breathing. People were performing life-saving maneuvers, but nothing was happening.
After 30 minutes or so, the paramedics finally arrived. They managed to revive the man's son, but there was nothing they could do about his wife... her neck was broken and she was gone. From what everyone could surmise, though there were no witnesses, his wife and son had gone to the highest point of a cliff overlooking the river, right beside the falls. One or the other must have slipped and both fell the long height into the water, with his wife hitting the bottom and breaking her neck and his son merely falling unconscious and drowning until help arrived.
Hearing this story on first telling was tragic and heart wrenching. But over time and retelling, the curious girl began to ask questions.
"What happened to the boyfriend?"
"Well, he stayed away for a while, but then he came back again," he said. "As a matter of fact, she had gone to lunch with him a couple of times and was feeling torn... I planned our trip to get away from his influence over her, so she could just focus on me and our son. She talked about that guy too much though." Then he fell silent.
In another conversation, she got up the nerve to ask, "Has your son ever spoken about the events of that day? Has he needed therapy for that?"
"No, he's never spoken about it to anyone. Doctors think he has amnesia due to the trauma of the event, but he never speaks of it ever."
She began to put pieces together that didn't seem to fit before and wondered if that fall was entirely accidental.
"Did the police ever question you?" she inquired.
"Why would they? It was an accident and I was asleep in the cabin."
"Oh yes, of course," she feigned, "I just thought it was procedure."
Despite her mind conjuring images of dastardly deeds at the hands of a jilted husband, a la OJ Simpson... she continued to converse and make plans with the West coast boy.
One day, her plans came to fruition. For New Years, she flew out to the other coast to visit a friend from high school, who just happened to live about two hours south of the other boy. He told her that he would come get her and bring her to the beautiful wine valley, where they could have just one glorious day together at last, before she went home.
When she arrived in the far away land, she called the boy, but he didn't answer... so she left him a message. A day went by and he never returned the call... then another day... then another. Finally, it was about to be her last day there so she called again and left another message wondering what happened. After several hours went by, he finally called her back.
He then told her that he couldn't meet with her... and why.
"It would kill my girlfriend. She'd be devastated if she found out."
"Excuse me?" she was shocked. "GIRLFRIEND? When did this happen?"
"We've been dating on-again and off-again since my wife and I had that separation. She's been with me through all of this with me and she moved in about a month ago. She's only 19 and her 20th birthday is in 2 weeks... I couldn't hurt her this way, not on the eve of her special day."
"Um... you do realize that you and I have been talking for several months now and in that time, you never once mentioned a girlfriend... much less a live-in girlfriend. How did you manage not to bring this up?"
"You never asked," he said, rather matter-of-factly. "And I never really thought you'd come out here."
She wished him a nice life with his pubescent girlfriend and went back home to her corner, narrowly escaping a starring role on several episodes of Jerry Springer in one visit.
She still doesn't know what really happened to his deceased wife and she has tried searching for him years down the road, but he doesn't show up anywhere. She did speak with him a couple of times more after a few months had passed, but the conversations were brief and aloof, as would be expected.
She hardly ever speaks of this time with anyone anymore. It just seems too bizarre to be true... though other close encounters have come to push this one to the further recesses of her memory. More on those to follow...
UPDATE: She found him, on his birthday, no less.
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