Skype Date

A Story by Mr Alednac

A classic tale, with a modern twist.

It was a typical Saturday night for Catherine, Catherine was a 17 year old girl sitting in her dark room and the only source light came from hot white glare from her laptop. The room was quiet as well and the only noise that was heard was Catherine’s breathing and the buzzing hard drive from the laptop. Catherine loved doing this every Saturday night, it was a time for her to be alone with herself and her thoughts while enjoying the vast wasteland known as, the internet. Catherine would watch videos and tend to her blogs regularly, but this routine became tiring and repetitive. She needed to do something new, discover new people that she can connect to and develop friendships, she had done this through blogs but she wanted to see people face to face.

One Saturday night Catherine began looking into video chatting and soon discovered Skype. Catherine thought that this would be a great way to meet new people and get to know them like never before, she quickly created an account and began looking for anyone to video chat with. Before she began searching for someone to chat with, she immediately got a friend request. The username was Capitan Ruben, Catherine was very hesitant do accept the friend request but then she thought to herself that this is what she wanted, so she accepted and began a instant message conversation with Capitan Ruben. Catherine began typing, “Hi there, Capitan Ruben” it didn’t take long before Catherine received a reply, “hey there, lol you can just call me Ruben :P” Catherine smiled and laughed a little and typed, “hahah ok Ruben, I’m Catherine, nice to meet you.” “Hey there Catherine! That’s a neat name, so what brings you here tonight?” “Me? I do believe you requested to speak to me sir :P” “Yeah, but it says you’re a new user, so what brings you here tonight? Lol” “hahaha touché sir, well I just thought I’d try video chatting with someone, I’ve never done it before” “Ah I see, a new comer huh? Well that’s cool, I don’t mind being your first video chat date, Cat. J” “hahaha you’re sweet, but before we continue, can I ask how old you are?” “Oh yeah no problem Cat, I’m 21. And how old are you? “Oh ok hahaha I had to make sure that you weren’t some 40 year old dude, and 21 huh? Nice hahah so, do you want to video chat with me, Ruben?” “Sure Cat, I haven’t talked to someone in a long while.”

When Catherine received the message from Ruben she began preparations to begin her video date. She fixed her hair, checked her face for any blemishes or any misplaced hairs and she heard the noise of a incoming video call on her laptop, she quickly finished tidying up, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened her eyes and pressed the accept button. Catherine was nervous while the screen loaded and the connection was loading, an image was coming in now, the image of a young man’s face appeared and it was Ruben and he gleefully greeted Catherine, “Hey there Cat! Nice to meet you stranger.” Catherine was quiet, she didn’t know what to say and when she did know what to say, she hesitated until Ruben spoke again, “You ok there Cat?” “Sorry! I just didn’t know what to say, this is really new and weird but, hey its really nice to meet you!” “hahahah yeah, so why with the awkward silence huh?” “I don’t know, it’s just you don’t look like you’re 21, you look really young” “Haahaha, thanks I used to get those compliments a lot actually” “Really? That’s pretty cool I guess haha and you might think I’m weird for noticing this, but why is your room so dusty?” “It’s ok, it is rather dusty isn’t it? Well I haven’t been in this room for about year now, I just got back from doing some travelling and yeah, that’s why it’s pretty dusty in here.” “Oh, that is awesome dude, where did you go? And I suspect that you live alone because no one was around to clean your room while you were gone huh?” “Oh well I haven’t really been traveling per say I’m been just hitchhiking throughout the state you know? Almost like a drifter, just going wherever I may roam and to answer your second question, no I don’t live alone, I live with my mom, dad, and one brother and sister. “Oh, that’s still pretty cool though and your parents are good with you wandering around and stuff? And your mom doesn’t tidy up the room while you’re gone?” “Well my parents aren’t really happy about it, but they know that I’m a free spirit and just have to be on my own and there really isn’t much to tidy up when no one is using the room huh?” “Well you do have a point there.” “Yeah, so enough about me, what’s up with you? I want to know more about my new friend Cat.” Catherine was delighted to hear that someone really wanted to listen to her and Ruben did just that, “So, I’m a senior in high school, and I may not be the most popular kid at school, but I don’t really care what other people think, I’m fine with my friends. What about you? Were you popular in high school?” “Me? Nah I mean, I guess you can say that I wasn’t mainstream popular but I definitely was underground popular.”

Catherine and Ruben continued to create a friendship, throughout the night they talked and discussed about their personal lives. The two discovered that they shared a lot in common with each other, favorite movies, books, and the two enjoyed each other’s sense of humor. After 3 hours into the conversation, Ruben’s face changed from a laughing smile to a very serious somber tone, “Cat, I want you know that I’ve been having a really great night, in all honesty I haven’t had time to actually sit down and have a conversation with someone and I’m really glad that I had time to meet you, you’re a great person.” Catherine didn’t know what to say, she smiled and said, “Thank you, that is really sweet and you’re a great person as well, I’m also very happy to meet you and have such an awesome conversation with you, we should do this again sometime!” Ruben smiled at the thought that Catherine wanted to video chat with him again and stayed quiet, and there was a silence between the two. Ruben broke the silence with a question, “Hey Cat, do you want to see something scary?” Catherine was very hesitant and stuttered, “uh, sure… I guess.” Ruben smiled and said, “Ok, great, now close your eyes and count to 5, but promise me no peeking or looking, close your eyes, ok?” “Ok I’m closing my eyes.” “You ready?” “Yes” “Okay, start counting.”

Catherine closed her eyes, and slowly counted to five. She was very nervous on what Ruben would do so she opened her eyes slowly and closed them shut quickly and she finally decided to open her eyes. Catherine’s eyes opened and saw that Ruben was gone, nowhere to be seen, Catherine was nervous and began calling out Ruben, “ok Ruben, you can come out now… Ruben?” Ruben’s room was dark and the door was cracked open and someone pushed the door in and it was a lady walking into the room with a confused look on her face. Catherine was surprised to see some lady walk into Ruben’s room and she greeted the lady walking in, “Hi there, you must be Ruben’s mom! Um, do you know where your son is? He’d said he’d be right back and yeah, oh! I’m sorry, I’m Catherine your son and I just met online and we’ve been talking the last 3 hours and I gotta say your son is a great person.” Ruben’s mom looked scared and more confused and she finally spoke to Catherine, “No, how are you talking through the computer?” “I don’t mean to sound rude ma’m but we’re using the internet..” “No, no but who turned on the computer? Who set this whole thing up???” “Your son, Ruben he’s the one who contacted me.” “No, that’s not possible, he couldn’t have done that, he’s been gone for at least a year now.” “Yeah, Ruben told me that he was out travelling for a year and he just came back from traveling, you probably didn’t notice him arriving but he’s here! I’ve been talking to him all night.” Ruben’s mom continued to shake her head and became more nervous and began to sob, “No, he couldn’t have because, he’s gone, and he is gone...” Catherine was the confused one now and leaned forward and asked Ruben’s mom, “what do you mean, gone? Like gone off traveling again?” Ruben’s mom began sobbing heavily now and she took a breath and said, “My Ruben, is gone because he is dead, he died last year after getting into a car accident, he died on impact and that is why I am confused to hear that you were talking to him because you couldn’t have…” Catherine was shocked and disturbed to hear the news she had just heard, she closed her laptop and leaned back. She was thinking, no it couldn’t have been true, this was part of Ruben’s plan, she thought, she couldn’t stop being scared at the thought of this. Catherine stared at her ceiling and felt a slight tinkle upon her skin, she looked over her shoulder and saw Ruben’s face staring back at her, and he said, “boo.”