Ten Years Ago

Ten years ago tonight, a very nervous woman sat in the New Orleans airport. A casual friendship of nearly two years had grown over the last few months. E-mails and chats had grown to packages and phone calls. Mutual friends had travelled to both and shared information, details, and photos. What had started as an online friendship in an rpg had grown into a real world connection, and it was time to meet.

The flight was on time. The woman nervously scanned the crowd. She had seen his picture. She knew he was 6'4". He would stand out. All of a sudden there he was. The crowd faded as the two met and embraced for the first time.

They sat in a crowded dark restaurant. No one knew the other better than they did, yet they were strangers. Their hands reached across the table. Strangers no more.

In a courtship as old as the first written correspondence and as new as technology, they had fallen in love with words.

Ten years...and they said it wouldn't last.

I love you, Jim!