For over a year I've been e-mailing with a man I never met in person. Long Story but he was on a video I came across, a testimonial about his experience of a historical event in another country. I realized that he and I might be related ; the connection would be with a woman who was born in the 1700's - the surname rare and noble. I e-mailed to the web site and asked if they would contact him for me and why. Three days later he wrote back. I was delighted. For much of 2023 he was actually back in the foreign country, living his life there, though his education, career, and life is in America. When I told him why I thought we might be related he attempted an amazing effort at researching for that connection, even personally going into the national archives there for me. I'm very appreciative and, as of this moment, we cannot establish the connection, though there is still some possibility.
Though we didn't e-mail frequently, but rather sporadically, my e-mails were chatty and I revealed various things about myself, not so much stats but ideas, points of view, and little snippets - slices of life; I was trying to provoke him a bit to be more self-revealing himself. He never took the bait.
Months might go by and then he'd e-mail that he was having trouble with Google over there or that he had just done some traveling to his family's old estates, which are no longer their possessions. I had a thousand questions, but because he seemed so unwilling to be open, I asked a few.
I sent a special message that I was concerned for him because of the war in Israel.
Didn't write back that he was OK.
I wondered if maybe he is a spy.
I decided to think of him as A MAN OF MYSTERY.
Funny, but when I sent him a New Years Message calling him a MAN OF MYSTERY, he began to open up. Back in America. He revealed that he had attended operas and plays while over there.
Ah, I said, "A Gentleman!"
In my imagination I imagined a woman with him - wearing a gown - bosom showing - wearing perfume.
I imagined that he has a mistress - maybe a few - maybe one there and one here.
When he wrote that he was going to the gym and that on New Years Day he takes a dip in the frigid ocean, I thought he intended for me to think of him as rugged. As in individualist.
In my mind I heard him chuckle.
Lately, when I read his brief responses and subtle unveiling of himself, I sense that he's actually having a great time of it with me, sort of dolling himself out. I still do not know if he has married (I considered that maybe, though there has never been anything outright flirtatious in our correspondence that he might feel some obligation to a wife) or if he has children. I hate the idea that he might be sneaking to e-mail with me.
All I know is that he used to live in LA and worked in aerospace.
So I asked him, "Have you seen any UFO's in underground facilities? Were you involved in back-engineering?"
He doesn't answer. I figure it's his security clearance.
He writes, "You write such great letters!"
Yes I do.
Or I think he is afraid someone - like maybe the Russians - will read our e-mail.
Maybe we should write in a secret code. So I suggest Proton mail as an alternative to Google. Based in Switzerland, a neutral country, encrypted.
He says he'll look into it.
He says I don't seem like the kind of person who would want to retire.
He's right.
C 2024 Christine Trzyna
