I It was January, 1996 in Australia and Tina was very unhappy in her marriage. She
had
finally worked up enough courage to ask her husband to leave and he grudgingly
moved
out. Tina threw herself into her career and tried to keep busy so she wouldn't
remember
how unhappy she was. But her ex kept trying to rule her life and manipulate her
feelings. Tina felt trapped. None of her family or friends knew her marriage was
over
and she didn't want to face all the "I told you so"'s. Tina had no-one to talk
to about
her situation and seemingly, nowhere to turn. Her job was her only saviour, the
only
place she felt in control.
Tina had recently been given access to the Internet by her employer. Each
evening she
would surf through the World Wide Web in amazement at all the information
available.
Finally, here was a way she could relax of an evening, not worry about the phone
ringing (it couldn't while she was on-line!) and research anything that
interested her!
Tina was hooked. One evening, while surfing, a link appeared to a place called
WBS.
They claimed people from all over the world could chat in "real-time" on their
site.
Tina decided to check it out. WBS asked Tina to create a "handle" or alias name
while
she was chatting. She chose "Tina_From_Down_Under" and entered a room called
"Twenty
Somethings".
The conversations were flying thick and fast in the chat room. After "lurking"
for a
while, Tina tried a few tentative "posts" to the room. Soon the regulars were
happily
talking to the "newbie" and asking her all about herself. Tina had started to
make "cyberfriends". It wasn't long before Tina began to understand all the chat
lingo,
like: ROTFLMAO ("Rolling on the Floor Laughing My Ass Off") and BRB ("Be Right
Back").
She was no longer a "newbie". Tina's cyberfriends were very supportive and happy
to
listen to her problems and give advice. She felt comfortable talking to them
because
they didn't know her and so could be more objective of the situation. Tina felt
much
better unburdening herself of her emotions and left the chat room that night
light-
hearted, sure she could tackle anything! After logging off, Tina looked at her
watch -
IT WAS 2AM! - She had been chatting for 7 hours straight!!!
A few nights later, Tina was in the "20 Something" room when a "newbie" calling
himself "El Maestro" kept trying to interrupt her conversation with one of her
friends.
At first Tina would send him posts saying to leave them alone, but he wouldn't.
Then
Tina tried a few offensive posts, but that wouldn't work either. Finally, Tina
just
ignored him. This really annoyed El Maestro and he sent her post after post
trying to
get her to talk to him. Tina was amused at his persistance. Finally, he left the
room.
Tina and her friends talked about El Maestro and wondered what his story was. An
hour
or so later, El Maestro re-entered the room and sent Tina a post which included
his e-
mail address. He asked Tina if she would email him sometime. Tina laughed. She
started
off hating this guy, but now her interest was piqued - some of his posts were
really
quite amusing (and his use of spelling and grammar indicated intelligence). She
wondered how old he was and why he was on-line. Tina promised to email him
sometime and
El Maestro left.
Later that night, Tina sent El Maestro a short email asking him about himself.
The next
day, Tina found a response. El Maestro was the same age as her (29) and lived in
Tulsa,
Oklahoma. He was a student and had gained Internet access for research purposes.
He
suggested they chat again sometime and Tina agreed to meet him in the WBS 20
Something
chat room at the end of the week. Saturday dawned and Tina found herself looking
forward to chatting to her cyberfriends again. She logged on and raced over to
WBS -
sure enough, there was El Maestro, already looking for her. She was surprised to
see
him so soon, it was only 4am in Tulsa! Tina began chatting with El Maestro and
others
in the room, but soon she only had "posts" for El Maestro. He was so witty! They
chatted for hours, getting to know each other and trying to amuse each other
with
clever posts. After a while, El Maestro suggested they move to a quieter room so
they
wouldn't be interrupted so often. So they moved to Japanese Chat. (This room was
to
become their regular meeting place).
Soon, Tina began revealing things about herself and her personal life that she
wouldn't
normally on chat. El Maestro was just so easy to talk to. They could talk about
anything - their childhoods, politics, relationships and their mutual love of
coffee.
It was obvious that they had a real connection and Tina was thrilled to have
found such
a unique and interesting friendship. After a week or so of regular meetings (a
lifetime
in cyberspace!) Tina began to feel more strongly about her relationship with El
Maestro. She felt a bond that she hadn't felt before with anyone, family,
friend,
lover, ANYONE! She tried to shrug it off as "a side effect of the medium" - just
a
mindgame created by her imagination, a false "closeness" intensified by the
clandestine
nature of cyber chat. Come on! She had never met the guy. Just typed messages
back and
forth on a computer screen for a few weeks, for God's sake! But it became
obvious that
El Maestro was feeling the same way. In a post, El Maestro said he got the
paranoid
feeling he was being monitored by a nasty scientist somewhere and that Tina was
a
figment of his imagination and he was just part of an experiment into the
effects of
The Internet on the human psyche. They laughed at the idea, but from that moment
on,
things took a dramatic turn...
And so began Tina's cyber affair... Every evening after work, Tina would plug
her
laptop/modem into the wall and listen as the modem issued the beeps and tones
indicating it was "logging on" to the Internet. Tina thought those sounds were
like
music to her ears. She couldn't wait to get to Japanese Chat and "see" her
cyberlover
El Maestro.
Tina decided to tell El Maestro the depth of her feelings. She sent the email
one night
after they'd finished chatting : "El Maestro, I know it's crazy, but I think I'm
in
love with you". Reading it back, she thought it childish and silly. Did she dare
send
it? But she really felt that way. With one mouse click, the email was sent and
her
friendship with El Maestro left hanging in the balance. She could hardly sleep
that
night, thinking about what response he might give...
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