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WolfGirl96 Hi, anyone here?

SFWired1 …I’m here.

WolfGirl96 Who are you?

SFWired1 Steve. You?

WolfGirl96 My name is Jane. Is Steve your real name? Or did you make thatup?

SFWired1 Does it make a difference?

WolfGirl96 To me it does.

SFWired1 OK, then. My real name is Lionel. Like the train set. Don’t laugh.

WolfGirl96 It’s a nice name. Better than mine.

SFWired1 What’s wrong with Jane?

WolfGirl96 Plain Jane. Think about it. Books never have heroes named Jane.

SFWired1 Jane Eyre. Jane Banks. Jane Marple.

WolfGirl96 OK, fine. I stand corrected. You are well read, congratulations. So, are you going to try to lure me into meeting you someplace in order to murder me and eatme?

SFWired1 That’s…dark. No. What gave you that idea?

WolfGirl96 The X-Files.

SFWired1 Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not a serial killer.

WolfGirl96 That’s a relief.

SFWired1 Now that we have that established, what brings you to this chat room?

WolfGirl96 Curiosity. I’ve never been in one before. I wanted to see how they worked. Do you spend a lot of time in chat rooms?

SFWired1 I have to. Actually, I’m a programmer here. This is my software. Just doing a routine check to see that everything’s workingOK.

WolfGirl96 Really? That’s cool. Where is “here”?

SFWired1 San Francisco. I work at Signal.

WolfGirl96 Should I know what thatis?

SFWired1 It’s a network of Web publications. We run this chat room. Plus a print magazine, a search engine, and a few other things. You should check it out. We’re at the forefront of the digital revolution, blah blah blah. What about you?

WolfGirl96 I don’t work. I’m still in school.

SFWired1 And where do you live?

WolfGirl96 In Montana. I live in the woods.

SFWired1 Really? Do you have a pet wolf? Hence the name?

WolfGirl96 I did, kinda. Someone shot him.

SFWired1 Oh fuck. I’m sorry.

WolfGirl96 It’s OK. We also have a lot of deer. And foxes and raccoons and the occasional bobcat.

SFWired1 The only wildlife I see here are the rats that live in the BART stations.

WolfGirl96 …BART stations?

SFWired1 BART is the subway in San Francisco, except it’s not as useful as a subway because it doesn’t really connect anything with anything.

WolfGirl96 I’ve never been on a subway.

SFWired1 You’re not missing much. Anyway, it was nice chatting with you.

WolfGirl96 Wait!! Don’t leave yet.

SFWired1 …??

WolfGirl96 Sorry, I don’t get to talk to strangers very often.

SFWired1 Oh. OK. What do you want to talk about?

WolfGirl96 I don’t know. What do people talk about in chat rooms?

SFWired1 Anything you want. Video games. Your favorite movies.

WolfGirl96 I’ve never played a video game. I’ve never been to the movies.

SFWired1 Never?

WolfGirl96 Never ever.

SFWired1 Damn. Well, you could also just tell me about your life.

WolfGirl96 It’s not that exciting. Probably not as interesting as yours.

SFWired1 You’d be surprised how boring my life is. OK, enlighten me on how you could possibly have never seen a movie or played a video game.

WolfGirl96 Sorry, I have to log off, I think my dad’s coming.

SFWired1 Your dad?

WolfGirl96 …

SFWired1 Jane?