Delilah 1.0

meGale, please cum by tonight

Mickey Ryan didn't have much, but he didn't need much. His apartment was exactly three rooms and that was counting the bathroom. He was fine with that.

There was a stove he never used, a microwave he used a lot, a television he rarely watched, and a sofa for a bed. He also had a straight backed, beat-up old chair sitting at a dilapidated old card table shoved up against the wall, and on that wall was the only cable jack in the whole place.

Atop this table against the wall was his PC, Mickey's pride-and-joy. This was his Rig, a sweet little state-of-the-art set-up indeed, and with his Rig he was connected. He had all the WorldWide at his fingertips, just a few keystrokes away via cable modem, and the modern marvel that was broadband.

He had an IT job and it paid well. And there were benefits, and there were perks. It came with stock options and bonuses, and a lot more. All just means to an end. The reality he cared about was the text and the graphics, all JPEG's and GIF's and HTML. What mattered to him came by point-and-click and his keyboard, inbox and POP3 and the like.

He expected to live what life he lived that night, and the invitation was a good start. He had a fast-food meal behind him from his trip home, it was just after six in the evening, and he had nothing else in the way. He had all kinds of time to sift his way through cyberspace, just like any other night.

He checked his e-mail in passing. Another invitation, similar but different.

hope you can make it meGale

In cyberspace he was himself, no longer Mickey Ryan, he was Miguel. meGale. Mickey was a mask, camouflage for his mixed heritage in a small town that wasn't always tolerant. A remnant, now, of the past that was behind him, but it stuck. Where it counted, though, where it meant something to him, he got to be himself.

It all started in a chat room that he happened upon one night when loneliness superceded his better judgment. He was there to watch, just lurking, he went to witness other lonely souls so he could take some solace from them.

It was a lonely-only mixer, a come-n-meet-me, desperation free-for-all. Dozens of recipients but only a few participants, the rest just hangers-on like he was. Mickey cum meGale merely listened in at first.

tim_222: hello? anyone see dovey?
littlelil: shes still there but looks like shes 'away'
hotslutz_R_us: COME SEE ME AND FRINEDS LIVE!!!! HOT WEBCAM ACTION!!!
tim_222: dovey? you know eye was joking
rogerthedodger: lolol What did U say chum?

There was much more, many more, too many for Mickey to track. Promising, entertaining at least.

rogerthedodger: hey dovey, come chat me up instead of tim, I'm hung like a leopard but the spots are for show!!!1
boardhousewife: ROFL
tim_222: fuck you roger
littlelil: it was a joke tim
rogerthedodger: what did U say? must be bad
rogerthedodger: what did U say? must be bad
[clamhammer7 has exited room]
sindysosingle: it was private for a reason, i bet back off dodger
sammyslamma44:yeah roger. get pist
boardhousewife: talk dirty to me
boardhousewife: LOL I like spots!
rogerthedodger: just how 'board' are U, housewife :)
sindysosingle: to bored to check her spelling! lol
[edge_O_matic has exited room]
[clamhammer7 has entered room]
boardhousewife: LMAO! that bored and more
[bigspender is away]

Mickey thought about leaving, it was entertaining but unrewarding. He didn't often frequent gatherings like these, but he was well-enough versed to know the breakdown was under way and more private sessions were imminent. Sessions that wouldn't include him.

Except...

delilah_1: hello meGale

Of course he was listed, since his entrance, but he never said a word.

Until...

meGale: hello delilah_1
delilah_1: come here and watch often? :)
tim_222: hi delilah
littlelil: hello again delilah. sup? :)

The room had forty-eight active members showing, it would lose some one minute, gain some the next. Mickey was one of the forty-eight listed at nearly any given moment, but only one of the other give-or-take forty-seven meant anything to him as things progressed.

meGale: no
delilah_1: maybe you should come here and watch more often :)
tim_222: it was a goddamn joke >:
littlelil: nice talking to you too...C U
[littlelil is away]
tim_222: it was just a joke so talk to me. private?
delilah_1: that's a great name, meGale, phonetic?
meGale: yeah does it show?
tim_222: christ
delilah_1: I might just know what to look for
tim_222: I don't need this. goodby bitch
[tim_222 has exited the room]

There were teasers back and forth, pixellated flirtations to and fro, many of them between he and her. A private room followed, and intimacy resulted.

He was transfixed and it persisted for many nights thereafter. They exchanged information recklessly, she knew more about him than he might have considered sensible, once. Now it just didn't seem to matter.

She was everything that mattered now, all that counted. He accepted her invitation, gleefully, giddily.

This was an invitation to IM, messages sent from one to the other and with no other a party to it. More intimate than open chat, quicker and easier, and far more fulfilling.

delilah_1: there you are!
meGale: I missed you today. did U miss me?
delilah_1: ;)
delilah_1: I sent you messages didn't I?
meGale: ...still nice to hear it
delilah_1: ok I did then
meGale: did what? :)
delilah_1: mist U

Sometimes he felt like there must be something else, something beyond the WorldWide that only escaped him because he didn't know quite where he should seek it. She remedied that for him.

meGale: sumtimes I think I heart you really-named-delilah
delilah_1: sometimes I think you better realy-named-miguel

Everything that meant something to him, once, was now forgotten. She was everything. He wanted to say so, but she preempted him.

delilah_1: we should meet
meGale: yeah we should
delilah_1: so when?
meGale: soon

Everything that once he wished for, she was that and more. He had to tell her so.

meGale: sumtimes I think you can't be real
delilah_1: ...
meGale: sumtimes I just know it
meGale: you cant be real
delilah_1: ...
meGale: ?
delilah_1: Im real
meGale: ...of course
meGale: I know

Something wasn't right. Something was going wrong.

meGale: it was a joke
delilah_1: im not laughing
meGale: Ok
meGale: sorry... :)
delilah_1: im as real as you

Hard to read tone when it's print, but this was chilly. This wasn't right at all.

meGale: im sorry
delilah_1: so you said
meGale: I don't want you to be mad
delilah_1: ...
delilah_1: ...im not
delilah_1: we should meet

A good sign, a reversal, damage control.

meGale: of course just say when
delilah_1: now
meGale: ?
delilah_1: now
delilah_1: right now just say when

Right now? It wasn't possible and he called her bluff.

meGale: Ok when :)

Nothing like a nightmare come to life and that's just what this was. Mickey never had a chance, the temptress had every last thing she needed to undo him and so she did.

And somewhere, in someone's unopened e-mail forwarded by someone else's because it was sent to them by yet another someone else and who knows just how many degrees it's gone through first, there's a smiley-face little missive from meGale@ that reads "Me & Delilah 4-ever!"

Too sad not to be true.