Bev told me that I should think about spreading the net a little wider. "Don't forget Dad, the local pond is a little small. There are all kinds of wonderful women out there who would love to get together with a great guy like you."

"Thanks, Bev. I'm just not sure about that. This is a completely new experience for me and I feel as if I am floundering around."

"Why not let me help you out?" asked Bev and with that, she plonked herself down in front of my PC and fired it up. I just watched as she fired up the browser and called up a site.

"Russian Brides?" I asked. "Why there?"

"Because there are young beautiful women looking for men silly."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Sure. What's the down-side. Why not see what happens?"

"OK. If you say so."

While we had been talking, Bev had already created a profile for me and uploaded a photo. It was the one that she had taken of me the previous weekend when I had finally soloed in my Gyro-copter, so I had a helmet and goggles on.

"Why that photo Bev?"

"You want to maintain SOME privacy and the helmet gives you that. I also figured that a photo of you with your 'copter shows that you are moderately wealthy without shouting about it and that you are an interesting man, who does interesting things."

"I can't fault you. You always were obsessively logical." I rested my hand on her shoulder and continued to watch Bev at work.

She filled in all the questions that the site asked without asking me for any of the information and then proceed to create a Gmail account for me so that my email also remained private.

"Doesn't this feel a little awkward for you?" I asked. "Not that I don't appreciate it."

"No. I want to see you happy. You have been moping for the last year and I want to see you happy. I haven't heard you really laugh out loud since before I left High School. You deserve some joy in your life."

I got a little choked up at that and just gripped her shoulder a little harder for a second. Bev looked up at me and smiled, then went back to what she was doing.

"Right. There you are. All set up." she said finally. "I have even set it up so that your email downloads into Thunderbird for you to read and reply."

"Thanks, Bev."

Bev left after supper and I sat down at the computer to take a look at the results of what she had done. My expectations were very low, but I thought I had seen some very hot looking women on the site when she was busy, so I figured I could at least spend some time browsing the images and dreaming.

When I cleared the screen-saver, I saw that there was already an email in the new account that Bev had created for me. I opened it up and found that there were seven messages, all telling me that I had messages waiting for me on the site. I clicked through to the site and went into the mail inbox, and opened up the first message.

"From Sekovaya, 22 y/o female, Moscow, Russia"

"Hello! I am positive and open-minded person, I dream to find my half and create a strong relations. My happiness would come from my beloved's happiness..."

Attached to the message was a photo of Sekovya. She looked beautiful with long auburn hair and a nice face. I thought the message was interesting but it felt like it was a form message that this woman was posting to all new signups.

The next message was

"From Armarinov, 21 y/o female, Chernovtsy, Ukraine"

"Hello! Here you are! I am tired of waiting for you! I've just was close of loosing hope. But I am glad that I am here! It seems to me it is you, I was waiting for! You are not alone anymore, you'll be my everything! I shall love you, be your friend and care of you! We do not know how long our lifes will be! Let us just being happy! Do not we waste our times any more! Do you feel smth? Do you like me? I am waiting, write me my Dear!"

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

The photo attached to her message put me off, together with the feeling I got that she was pushing it a little.

The next message got to me a little.

"From Daise, 19 y/o female, Kyiv, Ukraine" "Hi! Telling about myself like an advertising, I do not really like it. How can I write good or bad about me? I just can say what I feel from my heart. I am teneder, and young, and innocent. I had no serious relations yet. But I am 18 and I want to fall in love. Here I hope to meet my Teacher, he will be The Only One for me. I saw your profile and I like you very much. I want to be with you, to give you my heart. Aren't you going to break it? I trust you so much! I want you to be my Hero, my Love, my Everything! Do you agree for this? I am waiting for you!"

That sounded interesting. The photo of her was a profile shot with her looking over her shoulder towards the camera. Only her head and shoulders in the photo. She had a very innocent look, long honey-coloured hair and eyes that looked both light green and blue in the photo. I clicked through to her profile, intrigued. I was interested to see how she would describe herself.

Personal details

Sex: female Children: without children Want children: I will tell you later Date of birth: 1989 - October - 10 Height: 5'2" - 5'3" (156-160cm) Body type: Slim Ethnicity: Caucasian Religion: Orthodox Marital status: Single Education: College student Smoker: No Drinker: No

Description: I'm enchantress ... I may perform magic, only look in my deep blue eyes ... You will melt away in my embrace. I like to roll in the ocean of senses, pleasure and love ... I enjoy getting and granting You delight and happiness. I'm a cocktail of sensuality and passion in one bottle. I'm like an admirable flower, but you need courage to approach to the very brink of a precipice and pick it off... Ideal match description: You know, I should write in this section what kind of man I seek and what I will really appreciate in him. I thought much about this. But then I realized that I don't create any stereotypes, I don't concoct an ideal man, partner in life. Feelings, this flash that happens between two people, passion, longing, crazy romance for a term of lifetime - these are the most important things for me. And I consider if people are fated for each other, they will meet wherever they live ... So, I'm looking forward to your letters ... to meet my destiny.

I liked everything that she had on her profile. I like a petite, slender woman and I could see from her photos that she was exactly what she described in her profile. I couldn't help contrasting her with my ex-wife who had been a lot taller and who was a lot larger all round. I also loved the fact that she had such long hair. From what I could see from her photos, her hair was probably half as long as she was tall. I decided to take a chance and reply to her message, so I clicked back over the mail inbox and selected 'reply'.

"Dear Daise," I wrote. "Thank you for contacting me. I was amazed that a woman as beautiful and young as you would even be interested in talking to someone as old as I am. I would really like to talk to you some more to find out what it is that you really desire and discover if there is any path ahead for us. This is the first time that I have ever done this, so I am not too sure what I should do next." I clicked on the send button and continued to browse the site.

I looked at the profiles of a lot of other women and, while some of them were extremely beautiful, none of their profiles had the precise combination that had caused me to respond to Daise's. After an hour of that, I closed the web browser, intending to pack it in for the night. When I did so, I saw that there was a new email waiting for me, and it was from Daise.