Sitting down at her computer in her big leather chair, for the first time since graduation, Angel feels an instant tension building inside her. Thoughts of those long tedious nights composing paper after paper, trying to keep her 3.89 average through her master’s program, playing on her mind. She shudders, and shrugs off the temptation to run from the room, looking for solace from the intense grind she has just recently completed.
She smiles at herself thinking, “Come on girl…get a grip…it’s over…you’re free!” Chuckling out loud, she switches on the computer and it hums to life.
“Where do I start?” she says aloud, still feeling overwhelmed by the fact that she is once again in front of this monster machine that has caused her many sleepless nights.
Her husband sitting in the next room hollers in, “Angel, did you say something?”
“Oh, no Dan, nothing at all”, she chimes back, smiling to herself.
The Window’s program starts and she decides to connect with the Internet. For the first time in over two years she is actually going to use her computer for pure pleasure. The days of research and filing data are over for her; she is free to enjoy her toy. She decides to first visit yahoo.com. Some of her friends at school had told her about the many interesting things that could be found at Yahoo. Nancy said she liked to play games on the site, so Angel decided this would be her first stop. Logging into the game connection, she spotted Chinese checkers, one of her favorite games as a child. She giggled at the irony of it, here she was on this vast Internet, on her way to play a childhood game.
She chose to start out in the beginner’s rooms. Picking monkey moped, she entered and was immediately summoned to join a player in a private room. Not knowing how it all worked she declined the invitation. While trying to figure out what she was to do next the same person invited her once again.
She sat looking at the screen for a moment then thought, “Oh what the hell, you have to begin somewhere, Angel”.
So she clicked on the accept button in the invitation box and entered the room. She sat again looking at the screen, taking in the atmosphere of the game room. There was a picture of a real looking Chinese checkers board. In the upper corner was the icon she had chosen of a lady with brown hair and blue eyes with her own screen name and in the lower corner the icon of a skeleton and the screen name of her opponent. The gentleman who invited her into the room was there waiting for her.
At the bottom of the screen was a chat box where she found a greeting. The greeting said, “Hello, my name is Pete”.
She typed in, “Hi Pete, I’m Angel!” Feeling a little awkward this is all she said. She figured she would wait for him to speak again.
They exchanged small talk while playing the first game of checkers; niceties like where they lived, the fact that they were both married, how many children each had and the type of job each had. By the time they had played five or six games, she felt as if she knew Pete for a very long time, he was so easy to talk to. They confided early on that neither one was happy in their marriage, but that they had stayed on all these years because of their children. After sitting there chatting and playing the games for two hours, they decided to exchange yahoo instant messenger addresses. They left yahoo and went to the instant messenger to add each other to their perspective lists.
There they sat and talked for over an hour, at which time Angel said, “I’d better get going…I have to start dinner”.
“Angel, it was so nice meeting you and getting to know you,” Pete said, “I hope to see you real soon.”
“Pete, it was indeed a pleasure to spend the afternoon with you”, Angel replied, “and I too look forward to seeing you again.” She then signed off and went to the kitchen to prepare dinner.
Over dinner, Dan asks Angel how her afternoon went on the Internet. She thoughtfully replies, “I had fun playing Chinese Checkers the whole afternoon,” leaving out the part about meeting Pete.
That evening, watching a program she usually really enjoyed, Angel’s thoughts were on only one thing, her new friend Pete. She smiles to herself, remembering the little hint of flirting that went on between them. This is the first time she has ever talked at such length with another man; sharing such intricate details of her life and marriage. The thought of this brings a quick blush to her cheeks. She decides that the sitcom is boring so she tells her husband that she is going to go up to her computer for awhile.
He absently follows with, “Sure babe, have fun.” Little does he know what he has just given her permission to do.
