Virtual Strangers by Lynne Barrett-Lee Read Free Book Online Page A

Tenby knows the top five shag icons in Cefn Melin? They don’t know them either, do they? Forget it.’
    ‘Do clam diggers generally email each other?’
    ‘Tsh, Charlie! Get a grip. What does it matter, really ? Besides, it all sounds like it could be rather fun, if you ask me. Like a pen friend, except without the dodgy syntax. Is it a man or a woman, do you think?’
    ‘Haven’t the foggiest. I thought it was you!’
    ‘So why don’t you email them back again and ask them? You did say your life lacked excitement just lately.’
    ‘Hmm. By the way. What is an 0898 habit?’
    ‘Charlie, my love? Stay as sweet as you are.’

Chapter 6
    Friday. Post dinner.
    I’ve decided that Rose is absolutely right. That what I have is not a low life but a potential new pen friend. Feeling suddenly imbued with a delightful spirit of adventure. I feign a headache and so despatch Phil home early, then despatch a further email to my new mystery friend.
    [email protected]
    Hello stranger.
    My friend has suggested that you might be a clam digger from Tenby. Please advise.
    Charlie.
    Answer in ninety seconds! Mystery friend is obviously on the same virtual wavelength.
    [email protected]
    Hello back!
    I wish. But I do not own a bucket. Not sure it would be a prudent career move in any case. When was the last time you ate a clam?
    griffith.
    Fun indeed! Collect pickled shallots and a wine glass from the kitchen.
    ‘Charlotte?’ my Dad calls. ‘Are you back in that dining room?’
    He is concerned, I know, that I have not ‘acclimatised’ sufficiently, (and that I will perhaps become etiolated if I stay here too long).
    ‘I’m in the study ,’ I correct him. ‘I’m, er..doing some research.’
    [email protected]
    Dear griffith,
    I honestly cannot remember. Though, thinking about it, aren’t clams what they use in spaghetti vongole? And don’t they go around selling them from baskets, in pubs? Like cockles? And are you male or female, by the way? All this time, I’ve been working on the assumption that you are my friend (Rose, obviously) but now I realise I don’t actually know the first thing about you and I have this niggling anxiety that you are, in fact, a man. And that you’ve been getting off on imagining me imagining what I’d like to do to with the guys on my shag list etc., and that ... There I go! This is the trouble. I just do not who or what I’m talking to. Which is unsettling. Please tell me you’re a girl, or, if not, that you’re not a stalker/ deeply unattractive person with a penchant for slacks/gay. Actually, gay is fine.
    Charlie
    PS. You could use the shells to make novelty gift boxes. The trade’s seasonal, obviously, but I’ve heard people are willing to pay as much as £1.50 for a trinket box these days.
    [email protected]
    Dear Charlie
    Definitely male (though not gay or a stalker). Which I know will make you wince, but there’s not a great deal I can (or would want to) do about it, frankly. Does it matter so much? And why should my maleness cause you anxiety? Isn’t the whole essence of this sort of thing that it is a meeting of minds unfettered by prejudice? Isn’t the fact that it doesn’t matter about gender or looks the reason it works?
    griffith.
    PS I’m not terribly artistic. Perhaps you could give me some pointers trinket box-wise, so that I can assess my potential as a small scale manufacturer.
    Hmmm.
    [email protected]
    Dear griffith,
    Suspected as much. Could detect a slight frisson . Though, having suspected, I am now a tad uncertain where to take this thing. I suppose the sensible decision would be to simply cease communicating with you - you are undoubtedly a bit of a rascal - but your (very erudite) comments concerning minds meeting and being unfettered and so on lead me to suppose that you’d rather like to press on. But is this a sex thing? How do I know that ‘unfettered’ isn’t simply a euphemism for sex, for example? I wouldn’t