Chapter 2: Spreading the net

Bev told me that I should think about spreading the net a little wider. "Don't forget Dad, the local pond is a little small. There are all kinds of wonderful women out there who would love to get together with a great guy like you."

"Thanks Bev. I'm just not sure about that. This is a completely new experience for me and I feel as if I am floundering around."

"Why not let me help you out?" asked Bev and with that she plonked herself down in front of my PC and fired it up. I just watched as she fired up the browser and called up a site.

"Russian Brides?" I asked. "Why there?"

"Because there are young beautiful women looking for men silly."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Sure. What's the down-side. Why not see what happens?"

"OK. If you say so."

While we had been talking, Bev had already created a profile for me and uploaded a photo. It was the one that she had taken of me the previous weekend when I had finally soloed in my Gyro-copter, so I had a helmet and goggles on.

"Why that photo Bev?"

"You want to maintain SOME privacy and the helmet gives you that. I also figured that a photo of you with your 'copter shows that you are moderately wealthy without shouting about it and that you are an interesting man, who does interesting things."

"I can't fault you. You always were obsessively logical." I rested my hand on her shoulder and continued to watch Bev at work.

She filled in all the questions that the site asked without asking me for any of the information and then proceed to create a Gmail account for me so that my email also remained private.

"Doesn't this feel a little awkward for you?" I asked. "Not that I don't appreciate it."

"No. I want to see you happy. You have been moping for the last year and I want to see you happy. I haven't heard you really laugh out loud since before I left High School. You deserve some joy in your life."

I got a little choked up at that and just gripped her shoulder a little harder for a second. Bev looked up at me and smiled, then went back to what she was doing.

"Right. There you are. All set up." she said finally. "I have even set it up so that your email downloads into Thunderbird for you to read and reply."

"Thanks Bev."

Bev left after supper and I sat down at the computer to take a look at the results of what she had done. My expectations were very low, but I thought I had seen some very hot looking women on the site when she was busy, so I figured I could at least spend some time browsing the images and dreaming.

When I cleared the screen-saver, I saw that there was already email in the new account that Bev had created for me. I opened it up and found that there were seven messages, all telling me that I had messages waiting for me on the site. I clicked through to the site and went into the mail inbox, and opened up the first message.

Attached to the message was a photo of Sekovya. She looked beautiful with long auburn hair and a nice face. I thought the message was interesting but it felt like it was a form message that this woman was posting to all new signups.

The next message was

The photo attached to her message put me off, together with the feeling I got that she was pushing it a little.