Chapter One

Love At First Type:  An Online Romance, Based On A True Story by Epstein LaRue

"Hello there" popped up on the computer screen as Sassy entered the chat room.

Her favorite place on the computer was a three-dimensional chat site that had different "worlds" you could visit. It is a space station with dozens of rooms and space pods connected by hallways and escalators. The people she talked with assumed identities of avatars that acted as your body double in cyberspace. You could choose really cool realistic avatars from the avatar gallery, ranging from fish to businesswomen.

Sassy’s avatar was of a brunette with green eyes, large breasts, and a V-Neck bright red shirt. It was actually very close to what she really looked like. It was her escape from the horrid marriage she was in. She had friends from all over the world that she talked with daily, but who was "Repairman"?

"Hello" she replied.

"I am a fifty-three year old male from Wyoming, and you?"

"I am a twenty-nine year old female from Kansas. Married with one child." In front of her stood this handsome man in a dark blue polo shirt, blue dress pants, flaming red hair, and deep hazel eyes. Was he really anything like the avatar he was portraying? "Mind if I ask you if you’re married"

"No, I do not mind at all. I have been married for twenty-nine years to the same woman." He did not understand why he had stayed married to her that long. He had a comfortable life, but there was no spark in his marriage. "I have 5 children. They are all grown up and out of the house. Thank God! They range between the ages of twenty-seven and forty-two."

"Damn, you started out young having kids."

"Well, my wife had four from a previous marriage which I adopted, and then we had one of our own."

"That sounds exceedingly complicated. I definitely could not handle that many children. One is enough for me!" Must be a good man to raise children that were not biologically his.

"So, what are you doing in a place like this?" He just could not take his eyes off this ravishing brunette that had just opened the door to the chat room and into his life.

"Just hanging out before I have to go to work. Usually Mary, Deb, and Shane are here and I talk to them. I was looking for them when you hollered at me. And just what are you doing online tonight?"

"Just got back from a service call a few minutes ago. Setting here having a beer relaxing."

"What kind of service call did you have to go on?" Sassy had heard about these perverts that get online and seduce women and then rape them. This guy appeared friendly, but you just never know what you are going to find on the internet.

"I repair large appliances for a living and have to visit people in different parts of the city all day long. I get to meet lots of people and I damn sure know my way around this town. Do you work outside the home?" Most women have to work outside the home to help support their families, but there were a few he found online that stayed at home and played on the computer all day, getting housework done on occasion.

"I’m a Registered Nurse here in a small town in Kansas. I work mostly with medical, surgical, and rehabilitation patients."

"That sounds like a very interesting occupation. I worked in a psychiatric hospital for ten years as a mental health technician."

"I don’t think that I could do that kind of nursing. Although, some nurses I have worked with would agree that I would fit right in though."

"Are you saying that you are some deranged psychopath underneath that sexy avatar of yours?" What had he gotten himself into now, Jack wondered. Attracted by that damn avatar and her nickname, this could be some lunatic with a hypodermic needle. Just last week in the paper there was a story about some nurse who was going around, "putting patients out of their misery."

"You just never know what kind of person you are going to meet in a chat room."

"That is very true!" replied Repairman. "I hear my wife yelling at me again. I can not get on this computer without her having a big fit. It was very nice meeting you, and I hope to see you very soon again."

"I usually escape from real life to the computer every evening for a while before I go to work. I sure hope to see you again also."

"I hear footsteps coming down the stairs. Got to run. Have a wonderful evening." And with that he was gone in an instant.

What kind of person had she met this time? She enjoyed chatting with people who had medical backgrounds, but she never had talked to one that was from a psychiatric hospital. She often wondered if state mental hospitals were really like the one portrayed in the movie, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest."

"Hey there Sassy, whatcha up to tonight?"

Sassy turned her avatar around to find Mary, a pediatric nurse from Tennessee. They had met online the first week that Sassy had purchased her computer and in the past three months they had become quite good friends.

"Nothing much. Have to go to work tonight. Willie is driving me crazy again, so I had to escape to my world of friends. I wished that he could be as friendly as you and Deb are." She longed to have that special "feel the fire to your toes" relationship again with her husband, but it just was not there and she did not know if it would ever come back. "And what are you doing here?"

"I just got off of work, thought I might find you here. Nothing much at work today, just a few kids with the flu."

"Oh let me tell you about this new guy online tonight. He is fifty-three, from Wyoming, and does repairs on appliances. His name is "Repairman." I can not quite put my finger on it, but he is definitely not your average run of the mill appliance repairman. There was an unexplainable electrical charge surrounding him. We only chatted for thirty minutes, but I feel like I have known him all my life."

"That is all you need to complicate your life! Don’t you remember the couch potato in your living room that screams all the time? What are you doing? Trading in your couch potato for a computer potato who will send you email in capital letters when there is a problem. You are too much in love with the one you have got now to let go; otherwise, you would have been long gone by now with the way he treats you. Quit dreaming about that cloud with a silver lining. Come back down to earth where your wormy husband is." Mary had been through too many days of Sassy coming online and first thing she would say was, "Guess what that imbecile has done this time."

"I know it is pretty stupid of me to think this way, but when I first saw him, it felt like the grand finale on the Fourth of July. Anyway, I have got to get ready for work. Very glad to have talked with you tonight."

"Nice to find you too Sassy, and don’t do anything stupid or irrational! You know I’m here anytime you need me… well, that is, when I’m online."

"I know Mary. Thanks again for being my friend, sometimes I don’t know what I would do without you."

Kathy signed off the computer as "Sassy" and headed off for work. During the forty-minute drive that night, she could not get "Repairman" out of her mind. They had only chatted for thirty minutes, but there was this torrent of confusion and translucent adoration for this repairman in Wyoming. She pondered, "Is he really happy in his marriage?"

Kathy had been married for ten years. Willie had walked into the Café where she was working, and it was love at first site. She had this burning desire to become Mrs. William McCabe, but things were not that easy. While they were still going out, he cheated on her and to spite him she cheated on him. Kathy moved to Texas hoping to put all that desolation behind her, only to find out that she really did not want to live without Willie.

After six months in Texas, Willie called and pleaded for Kathy to come home and be his wife. Her dream had finally come true.

One bright spring day, she loaded up her pickup and moved back to Kansas. Ten days later Kathy became Mrs. William McCabe.

Marriage was not all what she had anticipated. Everything was wonderful the first three months, but after that the yelling started. She could not do anything right for her husband. It did not make matters any better that he was not ever at home. The television station always seemed more important than Kathy did. He was up at 4:00 a.m. and out the door by 5:00 a.m. Kathy had taken a job at the nursing home as a nursing assistant and worked from 2:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. On their days off, they were usually too tired to do much but watch a movie and go to bed.

The bedroom had also become devastatingly dull. Twenty minutes making love was a good night. Both were just too tired to do much more than that. Apparently twenty minutes was enough, because fifteen months after they were married Kathy started vomiting every morning. The doctor confirmed it. She was to become a mother.

The next eight months seemed to slither by. Kathy was not only sassy but also very temperamental, ill humored, and irritable. Anything said to her about how the house was kept or the laundry was done would send voices flying. The further into her pregnancy, the louder the screaming got. What had she gotten herself into? Here was the man she loved with all of her heart, and things were turning into day after day of agony.

Willie often questioned what had happened to his blissful bride. His first child from a previous marriage was stillborn. Would that happen again? With all the yelling, the poor child would be afraid to come out into this world!

Finally on April 1^st, Kevin Russell entered this world. It was the most illustrious day her calamitous life had seen in a long time. Maybe things would get better now that the baby had arrived. We can be an authentic family, Kathy thought.

But that did not happen either. Kathy was busy during the day keeping up with bottles and diapers while Willie worked. When Willie came home, he took over the care of little Kevin in the evenings while Kathy worked.

Kevin grew and things did not get any better. They lived in disconnected worlds now. They slept in separate beds and met in the family room once every two to three weeks to watch television together. Not exactly what Kathy had desired in a marriage, but she was not about to give it up either.

Then things went from bad to worse. There was something wrong with Willie. Not only did he have no desire to make love to her; he had no desire to spend time with her. After eleven months of this, she confronted him about it. He did not want to discuss things with her and pushed her out of the family room. After finding a toy and throwing it very angrily at Willie, he came back after Kathy with fists.

She could not believe it… What had happened to her marriage? Until death do us part is what the preacher had said. Was Willie serious about the death part?

The best thing to do now was to stay away from him. Live comfortably in the back of the house and be moderately happy. That I. R. S. refund? Oh yeah! She could buy a computer with it. She had always wanted a computer and now was her chance.

Off to the computer store she went the next day. She found the latest model and wrote out a check. She did not care what Willie thought. It was her refund money and she was going to do what she damn well wanted to with it.

This was much better than her old Atari. She could play all kinds of games with it. She bought a checkbook program so that Willie wouldn’t think that she got it only to play games on.

Now he watched the TV while he was home, and she had her computer. They both had something to do and kept out of each other’s way. Kevin soon learned that the best place to be was in his room with his stuffed dinosaurs.

Was not too long after Kathy got the computer, that she heard about something called the internet. What a deal! She could not only play games on the computer but also make new friends and chat!

So, that is the road that she took. Down the cyber highway of life. She did not care anymore what Willie did. She had her friends online and they actually wanted to be with her. She’d even found a couple of guys online who thought she had an extraordinary personality and told her that if she ever got divorced to look them up.

Divorce was not what she wanted. She wanted Willie to love her, but things had just gone downhill. There were no more cherries in life, just the pits. Although things were not going as she had hoped, she did not give up. She just kept hanging on to what little of a marriage she had.

Most men who had flirted with "Sassy", as she was called online, were just jerks and wanted cybersex, but there were some that she had brotherly friendships with. She was not interested in falling in love with anyone else. "Repairman" seemed to be different. It was almost like love at first type. How could innocent conversation turn into feelings?

Jack snatched his beer off the computer table and started up the stairs. He then saw his wife coming down the stairs with a very angry look on her face. As Lilly walked up to him, she asked very sarcastically, "Who the hell were you talking to this time on the computer?"

"No one dear. I was just checking my email. I found this new place to order spare parts for appliances super cheap. I wrote to them and wanted to know if they had a pump for this dishwasher I am fixing over in Casper. Why in the hell do you bother me about all this anyway? Damn, quit being so paranoid!"

He had met someone interesting online. A nurse from Kansas. Was she really like she portrayed? If she was half as good-looking in person as her avatar depicted, he just might have to make a trip to Kansas. He’d fallen in lust with nurses before, but what was so different about this one?

After serving his country in Germany for four years, Jack went back home to Wyoming and found a job as a salesman. He sold Lilly a vacuum cleaner and she stole his heart. She had four children from a previous marriage, Jane, Richard, Mike, and Carrie. They were just adorable. He really did not want children that early in life, but the pickings for a wife were very slim where he was at in Wyoming. He soon had not only fallen in love with Lilly, but he began to enjoy every minute he spent with the children. Lilly was physically exhausted from trying to raise four kids, the children were tired of living without a father, and Jack was tired of being lonely. They were destined to be a family.

One hot summer day in August, he married Lilly and soon took in the four children as his own. Life was just wonderful. He had a reliable job as a salesman, a magnificent home, a devoted wife and a pleasant family.

Jack wondered at times if he was ever going to be able to survive with such a big family. Some nights he would lay in bed and ask himself, "Damn, what was I thinking?" Just when he thought life was settling down for him, they found out that Lilly was pregnant with child number five.

Unable to support his family by doing sales only, he went to work at the state mental institution as a mental health technician. So, routine set in. They never went out and did anything fun together because taking care of the family took all his time. With five mouths to feed, he was working two jobs just to survive.

After years of one wife, two jobs, and five kids, Jack found himself stressed out. He started spending more time with his good friend Dave, and this new "invention" called a computer. They could spend hours upon hours tearing apart a computer and attempting to find out what was going on with it. Just how did the damn thing work?

In the ten years to follow, Jack and Lilly seemed to drift apart to the point they did not have a burning desire to be together anymore. He still loved the kids and took good care of them, but things just were not the same in his marriage. Although it was not all that bad, it was not all that good either. At least he did not have to do his own laundry and clean the house!

The computer business did not take off like he had dreamed; therefore, he started repairing large appliances on his days off from the psychiatric ward. The two oldest children had gone off to college, the middle girl was busy with high school boys, and the two younger boys worked with their dad as his little assistants. Lilly constantly complained because he was never at home, and when he was at home he was too busy out in the garage to spend time with her. But then again, why would he want to spend time with someone who griped all the time?

The last child graduated from high school and went off to trade school about the same time that the internet came alive. Jack quit working at the hospital and stayed at home more now. He kept busy working on appliances or relaxing in his comfortable chair surfing the internet Most importantly, he did his best to stay out of Lilly’s hair. That dream was too good to be true. After a month, Lilly would go absolutely ballistic when he spent more than two hours on the computer.

So he was miserable again. It would be easy to get a divorce, but then again, things were not really that bad as long as he just stayed away from her. There had been a few affairs along the way, but no one that turned him on enough to leave her for. He did not believe there was any chance of him truly falling in love with someone else… until tonight.

What did this "Sassy" have that astounded him so much? She was just another woman he had met online… or was she? He had conversed thirty minutes with her, and could not rationalize the radiance he felt when she stepped into the chat room.

He went to sleep that night lying next to Lilly, dreaming of Sassy. It had been a long time since he had dreamt of another woman, but his mind was racing with images of a sexy brunette with green eyes.

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