One night while hanging around the 40's chat room, a single line caught my attention. "Any mature woman wanna chat, PM me!" Believing myself to be quite mature, I responded to the invitation and private messaged the writer of the line. Besides, the conversations in the chat room were all boring and shallow, and I thought this was probably a mature man wanting a mature conversation.

This conversation , however, turned out to be far from boring. In fact, it was quite intriguing. The guy confessed to being just eighteen years old with a "thing" for older women. His sole intention that night was to find an older woman and seduce her online. As luck would have it, he found me.

We chatted for over three hours that night, but his planned seduction never took place. Instead, he confided in me that he had been seduced some years earlier by an older woman, hence his obsession with them. His little sister's baby-sitter had once asked him to drop off something at her house and had taken the opportunity to seduce him, and he had since been attracted to older women. He had recently started visiting the 40's chat room and looking for possible suspects....

My heart went out to this poor kid. He had been dealt a raw deal. I listened attentively to all he had to say and offered understanding and guidance. He told me so much about himself that night and he seemed to be a very intelligent young man. He was about to enter university the following month and was looking forward to that experience, although he was dreading leaving his family.

Before we said good bye that night, he asked me if we could chat again, and I replied that I would love to, so we both added each other to our friends' list. He couldn't stop thanking me for listening and offering him advice and my friendship. He told me I could have done like many others before me, and called him a pervert and put him on ignore, but instead I took the time to get to know him and only chose to ignore his reason for wanting to chat. Later in our relationship he told me something that was to be the most special thing any guy had ever said to me. He said to me, "Jan, I am so glad it was you who answered my PM that night, because instead of getting a one night stand, I found myself a buddy, someone who respected me and with whom I could be myself, and one for whom I have the greatest respect and admiration." He also told me he never went back to the 40's chatroom to find prey again. This made me feel so good knowing that I had some effect on this young man, and I felt even more special when he started calling me, "Aunti Jan".

This initial meeting took place eight months ago. We continued chatting almost every night until he left for University. We did not chat while he was away, but he would e-mail me from there twice a week. He would occasionally visit his parents for a weekend, and when that happened, we would chat the night away. I looked forward to his mails and his humour. I would wake up on a Monday morning and couldn't wait to read my mail, because I know there would be a letter from him. This took away the Monday morning blues.

One time he e-mailed me telling me he would be home for the weekend, and would meet me online at a certain time. I was like a school girl waiting for her big Prom date. That night, I waited for about one hour and he didn't come on, but a girl named Lily PMed me and asked if I knew a guy named Jim, or if he was putting her on a scene. I said that I did, and he was suppose to meet me here tonight. She sounded relieved when she introduced herself to me, saying that Jim had asked her to come online and look for me and inform me that he had been delayed and may get home some time later. She confided in me that Jim had gone looking for a friend of theirs who had gotten drunk and accepted a ride home with a not too decent guy.

Lily and I chatted a while and I learned that she and Jim had been friends forever, and had lived close to each other all their lives, but were both attending different Universities now and didn't see each other as much. Pretty soon Jim came online and we thanked Lily and she left us to chat. Jim told me he had found the girl and she was now upstairs in their guest room asleep. He told me he had to find her because once he was supposed to go to a party with another girl and he was ill and didn't make it, and he found out later, she had gone to the party, gotten drunk, accepted a ride home and had been raped. So he felt that he had to find this other friend tonight. I admired this little guy a little more now.

Lily became a major part of our relationship. She was always online, and Jim would, as she put it, 'order her' to phone him when I came online. Because of our time difference, most times he would be sleeping, but she had instructions to wake him when Aunti Jan came online. This kid was quickly becoming a major part of my life. Over the Christmas holidays we had so much fun while he was at home. I was like a kid myself when I was with him. The three of us became so close over those holidays and it was so sad when they had to return to University, but we promised to keep in touch as we had done before.

Lily also told me I owed her greatly and could repay her by putting in a good word for her to Jim, as she had fallen in love with him but didn't know how to let him know that, because of their long standing friendship which she didn't want to jeopardize. What she didn't know was that Jim had told me the same thing, and wanted to get closer to her also.

Well, I did a bit of talking on both sides and they finally hooked up without either of them losing 'face', but after much discussion they realised that it wouldn't work out with them being so far apart for the next couple of years and decided to remain good friend until they were both finished University.

So it was back to e-mails between Jim and me, until he came home for his birthday in early March. I had gotten his dorm address from Lily and had sent him my book of poetry and a card for his birthday. He was so thrilled he told me that he would treasure it forever and he would study real hard and be a success so that one day he would buy us our very own island. I was so amused and touched. Every time he e-mail me after that he would tell me that he saved up some more coppers and in his last letter he told me that he had enough now for some sand, and that if I supplied the water, we could start working on our island.

I loved this little guy so much. He was like a breath of fresh air. I began to think of him as the son I never had. And he thought the world of me. He would find every excuse to come home so he could chat with me and if he missed me when he came home for one night, he would leave messages upon messages for me. I was very touched by his devotion to me. I had come to care about him so much now and looked forward even more and more to chatting with him.

We were both looking forward to the Easter vacation when we would spend time together online. The Wednesday before University closed he e-mailed me saying that he was not feeling well and was just hanging in there till Friday, and then would be home by Sunday and couldn't wait to chat. Needless to say, Sunday found me online almost all evening, but to my dismay, he didn't turn up. I did see Lily, however who told me that both she and Jim were now home but he was very ill and was probably sleeping, but if it was important, she would phone him and wake him up. I told her not to because he was ill, that we would chat tomorrow. But in my heart I knew Jim would contact me that night.

And he did. Not too long after, Lily smiled and asked me if I had seen who's online. I knew that Jim had come on. He apologised saying he wasn't feeling well and had been sleeping but had set his alarm for 2.30am when he was certain I would be online. I was so happy. Lily said bye to us both but before she did, she told him she would visit him the following morning. We were both so happy to be together again and knowing we have the entire holidays to chat. After about an hour Jim told me that he was really hurting and needed to back to bed. I was so sorry to know that I couldn't be of some help to my little friend and I said good night to him, but not before making him promise to see the doctor in the morning.

I didn't hear from him the following day or the day after that and I was beginning to get worried. Finally, on Wednesday night, Lily e-mailed me telling me that Jim was in hospital and he would probably come out by the weekend and that she would keep me updated. But after another week, I still hadn't heard from her or him and I was just going stir-crazy. I e-mailed Lily almost every day, but got no reply. I began to think the worse.. Finally, she sent me word that he was out of the hospital but his parents had taken him an a trip with them with the permission of his Doctor. She apologised for not replying to my e-mails sooner but didn't because she had been visiting relatives, and had only just read them.

I was so relieved to hear from Lily that he had gone with his parents, and that it was nothing worse. I remember Jim telling me the last night we chatted that he was going to be gone for two weeks with his parents, and after checking my history of the conversation the last night we spoke, that trip is supposed to end this weekend. So from what he told me that night, I am hopeful that by this weekend, I will hear from my little prince once more and that my story would have a happy ending.

.....

One week ago, when I wrote this, I knew that soon I would hear from Jim, and today, I did. He is much better and back to school. He plans to go home next week for a few days, and hopefully, we will get that chance that we missed out over the Easter holidays. In the mean time, I look forward to his e-mails.