Chapter 2

The following day seemed to drag for Cory, she’d done a download before school much to the disgust of Sam and there were several new mails about the ‘chocolate war’. There had also been one off JJ saying that it was nice that she was on board and that she had gone searching for the missing child and hoped that Cory would catch her up. Cory thought she’d drop JJ a line privately to see if they could come up with a game plan but although she appeared to be an outgoing confident person on the outside she was quite a shy character on the side and really didn’t want to appear pushy.

She glanced at her watch it would be another 2 hours before she could get home and download – something was going on in her body she had no idea why this war game was so important she just couldn’t get the game out of her mind. Actually that was a lie, she couldn’t get JJ’s message out of her thoughts, such a simple message but it had had such a profound affect on her senses. All she knew was that she wanted to make first contact with JJ.

It had been a torment but finally the day was over and Cory made her way home, the weather was lousy, a typical winter’s day in England but for once she was so pleased that it was actually raining hard. Due to the rain she’d had to cancel her after school netball club that meant an early get away. She’d practically flown across the car park and the drive home was a blur. It was 10 minutes later when Cory sat in front of her laptop and logged on. She waited impatiently, she hated this part, as it seemed like forever while the computer dialled out and tried to connect her. The waiting was killing her, she’d never been known for her patience or attention span but tonight for some reason the wait seemed longer.

She scanned down the list that was slowly appearing in front of her and there it was JJ Matthews, a private mail. Cory’s heart began to pound. She didn’t know why, she often had private mail from friends in the UK but she put this down to the fact that this was a mail from across the ocean.

She opened the mail up, it read:

# JJ Matthews – The Search

Hi Cory,

I hope you don’t mind the private mail but we keep missing each other and I thought maybe if we got together and did a joint report we’d be able to come up with some good ideas and possibly get a good reply from others. Your writing style is very good much better than mine I struggle to put my ideas onto paper. What do you think? If you’d rather work on your own I understand. I hope you don’t mind me doing this off list.

JJ

Cory read the rest of the titles and names that were in her inbox and the rest of the posts concerning the role-play and then she went back to JJ’s mail and reread the mail twice before hitting the reply button:

# Cory Williams – Re: The Search

Hey JJ,

Thanks for the mail – I was going to mail you privately tonight so you beat me to it. Great minds think alike. I think it’s a good idea to work together, you can translate some of these American sayings, as I’m in the UK, and there are some words which I have no idea what they mean (vbg) and I’ll do the writing.

One question I’ve been dying to ask but couldn't pluck up the courage on-line - What exactly is a love seat? We have these in England but they are wooden chairs that face each other and well I can’t imagine these being in someone’s living room!

Also what is in the bar of chocolate that everyone is going on about, Hershey’s I think they’re called? We don’t have them over here. I have to admit I’m not really one for chocolate but we’ll keep that a secret amongst ourselves! (g)

Just keep sending me ideas and I’ll put it into sentences! I like your humour – it made me laugh – it was one of the reasons I joined the role-playing. So what do you want to do next??

Cory

She reread the mail and then hit the send button. She checked her watch and knew there’d be no point in waiting for a reply as there was a good 5 hours difference between the UK and the States and she had no idea what JJ did for a living or where in fact she lived in the US. She decided to clear out her inbox and then do some schoolwork. She went downstairs to the kitchen humming and a smile played on her lips, she didn’t even realise she was doing it until she caught sight of herself in the mirror and she noticed that she looked totally relaxed.

She made her way into the lounge, carrying some beverages for Sam and her, she made polite conversation to Sam but he was so engrossed in the latest Premier football match that he hardly noticed her presence. She settled onto her sofa and sat there drinking her glass of Guinness; she found her mind drifting back to the e-mail, or to be precise the e-mail sender. JJ – it was kind of mysterious she didn’t even know if they were initials for a male or female. She found herself wondering whether she wanted JJ to be a man or woman and then figured it didn’t matter either way; you could never have enough friends in her book.

Cory was a very social person and her friends were amazed that she’d finally settled down. She’d never really had a long term relationship, well not one they’d known about and she’d often gone out with people, enjoyed the chase and then once she was actually with the person she’d often got wander lust as if she was missing something and off she’d gone in search of it. What it was she was looking for she had no idea, she figured she’d know when she found it, she’d honestly thought she’d found it with Sam but as time had passed by so had their relationship. She knew she loved Sam; he was her best friend and confidant but was that enough. She still felt there was a missing piece, like a jigsaw that wasn’t quite finished. She couldn’t say what it was she just didn’t feel complete.

Her mind went back to the name ‘JJ’, “Cute!” she thought, “I wonder what it’s for; Jane Julie, John Jackson … Well you could just ask!” Cory thought to herself. “No time like the present!” She checked her watch and did a mental calculation well the time was 10pm so the latest it could be was 5pm over there – it was worth a check.

She muttered something to Sam as she passed his reclined body on the sofa, he acknowledged with a grunt. She quickly ran up the stairs and grabbed her laptop putting it on the office desk, she decided she’d download upstairs, at least she could relax without Sam making comments and he was now watching the golf, which she found tedious. Within 5 minutes she was comfortable and the inbox had begun to fill, 35 messages, her eyes scanned down the list and there, second from last, was the name she’d been searching for JJ Matthews. Cory said a silent thank you to whomever she thought was watching. She opened up the mail.

# JJ Matthews Re: The Search

Hey Cory,

How’s it going? Thanks for the reply I was a little worried about sending you a private mail but I was pleased that you agreed. I reckon we go out and do a wider search of the forest pack lots of supplies and stuff. What do you think?

As for the questions a love seat is a two-seated sofa, called a love seat I guess as you get to sit close to the other person. As for the chocolate I’ll keep that just between the 2 of us (bg)

I thought I’d introduce myself I’m 32, female and work as a computer technician at a local college. How about yourself?

Hope to speak to you later,

JJ

Cory hit the reply without a moment’s hesitation and then she pondered what to write. She had a lot of questions she wanted to ask but didn’t want to scare JJ off; she had a habit of asking too many questions.

# Cory Williams Re: The Search

## JJ

Great ideas, I’ll think some of them over and put some thoughts down on paper. As for me real life is hectic at the moment it is heading towards a busy time at work, I’m a primary school teacher, so real life and kids just keeps getting in the way! Don’t they know there’s a war on (g)?

About myself well I’m 28, my birthday is next month, I’m about 5ft 5in, blondish short hair, green eyes. My partner’s name is Sam. How about yourself? Oh yeah you don’t have to answer this but what does the JJ stand for?

Cory

She sent the mail and then began fiddling with her hair, she often found herself doing this, it was a comfort thing she did it when she was thinking things through. She had a few habits that betrayed her true feelings, her confident manner was often a front and if people looked closely they’d notice her nails were often bitten down to the knuckles, the more stress she had; the less nails. She also ran her fingers through her hair when she was nervous or thinking and she fidgeted a lot. She had a tendency to rock when thinking, this drove many of her work colleagues to distraction in staff meetings but half the time Cory never noticed. When thinking she tapped things and fiddled with anything within her grasp, her attention span was practically non-existent, unless she was reading or writing, she was often teased that goldfish had more of an attention span than she did.

She glanced at her watch, 10.30pm, well not much chance of a mail now she decided to have an early night, it was Friday tomorrow and that meant a grueling session at the gym after school.

Part 3

Mail Jules

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