Then this morning I opened my email and found a message from Koestler33...eagerly I opened It and read it. And as I read I I gained a new appreciation for the wonders of the Internet: “Dear Steven,” (it said) “You have told me that you love me and because I believe you we can never speak again. This is especially true because I feel attracted to you also. Whether I am in love with you I do not know...but I do not doubt that I easily could be. “And so I must say goodbye. But I could not just disappear (as my first inclination was) I feel as if I owe you an explanation as to why we can never meet---and maybe that means I DO love you after all. “You have often joked with me about my ID and I promised that one day I would tell you why I called myself Koestler33. And today it is time to keep my promise. “I have made no secret of the fact that I am older than you...but you never asked me when I was born. I was born on April 23, 1938 which makes me 63...old enough to be your grandmother...or it would...if I were still alive. You see, I died on July 4, 1987.* (*http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=ssdi&ti=0&prox=&gs=CASSANDRA+MORRI SON) “I know no more than you how it is I am still able to communicate with the world of the living via the Internet. All I know is that I was delighted to discover that I could talk to all my friends just as though I were still alive. I take it to be similar to the Ouija Board and the Automatic Writing they talk about in Spiritualist Circles. "But that is why our love can never be, Steven, my darling...I have been in my coffin for 15 years...the physical part of me, anyway. You DO understand, don’t you? I never meant for you to love me...and I certainly never meant to hurt you. ---Cassie” I sat stunned for several minutes. For if this were possible...if this were anything more than a sick joke...then it meant that we never really know who or WHAT we are chatting with on-line. How many OTHER ghosts had I talked to unawares? Then I noticed there was a PS. I t was just a link to a website. But after I had clicked on it I began to laugh for it showed me that not only is the human spirit immortal but that laughter can even triumph over the grave: http://freespace.virgin.net/steve.charter/big-picture/koestler.html                                                                             Cassandra Morrison Copyright ©2002 Cassandra Anne Morrison