Lately, I’ve been feeling very lonely, living in an apartment alone in the middle of winter, with limited outings, who wouldn’t feel lonely, especially when you are 70 and you know that your spring days are not coming back, you will not see your cherries blossom again.. err, I meant cherry trees…
One day in the middle of winter, below freezing temperature, with 2-day-old muddied snow and ice, that had turned from a beautiful sight to an unattractive pile like a 70-year-old man; the roads were treacherous to even step outside. after cooking and cleaning I settled down on a couch for my mandatory afternoon nap, TV remote in one hand and phone in the other, as I debated which lullaby to watch for 10 minutes to fall asleep, my phone dinged. The sound of critical message alerts.
I immediately tried to unlock my phone but struggled like most people in my age group with the exact location of putting my finger for it to recognize me. It no longer recognizes my face because 10 years ago when I registered my face for face recognition technology it used to work but it refused to recognize my face now for obvious reasons. I mean even my friends sometimes look at my face, question it, and ask for fingerprints for verification.
After quite a struggle my phone opened the dinging message.
The message was from some unknown number and it said: “Hey darling we are still meeting tonight, right? I’ll sleep over after dinner. And don’t say no”.
I was stunned, in a state of shock, frozen for an eternity. After a long time when I thawed, I read it again and again. It felt like Tom Hanks saw a rescue plane above his head in Cast Away. I was super delighted to know someone was meeting me and coming to my apartment for a sleepover. I didn’t even waste a second and replied without even thinking –
“Yes, Cindy I am free this evening after 6 pm and yes, you may sleep over tonight, I have a couch where I can sleep comfortably. “
After hitting Send on the message reply, I got puzzled over why I wrote 6 pm when I have nothing to do between 1 and 6 pm either. I could have left now. I pondered over that thought until my phone text dinged me again and a message popped up on my screen – “Glad to hear that baby. Will see you at 6 at our usual TexMex place. Is that ok?”
And I immediately replied, sure. See you at 6. And seconds later her reply came back, “Babe, send me the address of the place for my car’s GPS. I forgot the name of it.”
Faithfully, in my excitement, I sent her the name and address of the closest TexMex restaurant.
Came a reply a few seconds later, “Honey, I need your credit card to make a reservation. Can you take a picture of it and send it to me so I can reserve a table? It’s a very popular place and they may put a $100 hold on it so that we don’t cancel without showing up.”
“Oh I tried, but it won’t go through without your address. Can you…. “
Then came another ding… “Hey M darling, get excited to see me in my birthday suit tonight… your Cindy.”
I was so excited to have a date with Cindy on a dreary gloomy winter day. I was thrilled with the thought of going out and talking to someone.
Barely 30 minutes must have passed and another ding came. I was expecting a reservation confirmation from MY Cindy. But this ding was from my credit card company. An alert was sent to notify me that a purchase was made for $5000 on my card in Somalia. And then came another ding and another ding and they kept coming for the next 10 minutes.
Suddenly I came to my senses and started wondering, who in the hell Cindy was… and my day became gloomier and gloomier….. I waited on the phone for 30 minutes with my credit card company and as a courtesy, they told me that my current balance was $8,325 and hung up because they were too busy handling many other cases.
I am still trying to find Cindy’s number because it seems to be not working anymore. Sure enough, my “Cindy” wasn’t some swimsuit model with a hankering for enchiladas, but a digital bandit after my hard-earned cash. Just another day in paradise for a lonely senior on the internet, I guess.
Now a week later I am appreciating my good old days of no cell phones and texting. Scammers had to go find carbon copies of the credit card purchase and try to defraud some ignorant merchant…
Moral of the story? Maybe stick to chatting with the mailman for some human interaction.
Koi luata de mere beete hue din… (someone please get my old days back… a famous Hindi song)
(This is just for humor, please don’t call me to sympathize or empathize with me. I’m very busy and don’t have time to answer all calls and texts, especially from unknown numbers. 🙂 And yes, don’t forget to subscribe to my blogs below, all you need is your email address and a $5000 donation.)
Take 2 Creations 