Web Tragedy

(17th February)

My phone vibrated.

I opened it to check my notifications.

There were 1000 friend requests on Facebook. Somehow my profile had gotten boosted.

The latest friend request was from Williams Adams. I noticed the extra ‘s’ in his first name Williams. It should have been just William excluding the ‘s’ in the end.

One by one I started accepting all 1000 friend requests. Williams’ being the first one. Half an hour later, I had already accepted around 700 friend requests. Only 300 left. I was clicking the accept button when William sent me a message.

“Hello,” he typed in.

“Hello,” I typed in.

“Hi, I’m William Adams,” he typed in.

I noticed that he used William and not with an extra ‘s’ in the end like his profile read.

What an uncanny mistake, I thought to myself.

“I’m Anima,” I typed in.

“How are you?” he typed in.

“I’m fine,” I replied.

“Where are you from?” he typed in.

“I’m from Bangladesh,” I typed in.

“Are you single?” he typed in.

“Dude, I don’t even know you,” I typed in.

“We can know each other very well. Give me your WhatsApp number,” he typed in.

I gave him my WhatsApp number.

Ten minutes later he knocked me on my WhatsApp number.

So he preferred WhatsApp over Facebook, I thought to myself.

“Hi Anima. How are you?” he typed in.

“Hi William. I’m fine,” I typed in.

“That’s good to hear Anima. Nice to meet you here,” he typed in.

I noticed that he inserted my name in the text like I did.

“Nice to meet you too,” I typed in.

“What is your work?” he typed in.

“Currently I’m working at a local newspaper,” I typed in.

“That’s good to hear. Keep it up, ok,” he typed in.

Then we both paused at typing for about five minutes.

I had my phone in my hand with half my concentration focused on my grandmother’s television.

My phone beeped.

He messaged me.

“Do you have kids?” he typed in.

“No,” I typed too quickly.

“Me too,” he typed in fast.

I noticed his ‘Me too’ but did not extend the conversation further.

So he would have been okay with me even if I had kids, I thought to myself.

He is quite amusing, so far, I thought to myself.