Wow, you are an English teacher? I hope you are understand my English? … Maybe you can understand I think.
I hope you will have many friends soon.
Ok, Charlie. I must start my works now. Nice to know you and I hope you have a nice day and write me your news again.
Your (new) friend,
Sari.
I looked at my email for a long time before I sent it. Was it ok? I know my English is not good and, actually, I wanted Selvey to help me but I was still scared to tell her about Charlie. I hoped Charlie didn’t think I was a silly girl because I finished my email with ‘Your friend, Sari.’ Maybe he would be angry because I said I was his friend? I hoped not. I didn’t think so. Do you? I just wanted him to know I was happy to be his friend if he did.
Three weeks later my world had turned upside down. There I was, sitting at my desk and feeling angry about it all again and I couldn’t think of Charlie as a good man anymore. I think he lied to me and tricked me. I felt sad. I felt like a stupid girl. I was not happy. I was sad.
In the three weeks after I first contacted Charlie, and the almost two weeks since we first met, Charlie made a fool of me. I think he was laughing at me with all his friends and all the other many, many Indonesian girls he knew all along. I am crazy. Ahhhhh … Charlie! Why?????????
In the beginning everything seemed so nice and Charlie seemed like such a nice man. He replied to all my emails and always showed that he was interested in me and asked me lots of questions and I was always happy when I got to work and checked my email and saw he had written to me.
After a week or so of sending emails almost everyday he gave me his mobile number. Actually, I didn’t ask for it; he just put it on the bottom of one of his emails to me. I was confused when I saw it because I didn’t know what it meant. I didn’t know if it meant he wanted me to call him or if he wanted me to give him my number, or what.
I was not brave to call him. I am a girl. I cannot just call a man I’ve never met. That is the sign of a bad girl, I think. So, finally I decided I would just give him my number too and then see what happened.
So, that is what I did. I wrote an email to him and finished it with my mobile number at the bottom, just like he did. Then I waited.
The next day he called me! When I heard my phone ringing I looked at the number displayed on it and didn’t recognise it but I thought maybe it was Charlie. I was so surprised, scared, and happy all at the same time when I answered and it was him.
‘Hello, it is me, Sari,’ I said.
‘Hello Sari. This is Charlie. How are you?’ his soft voice said to me.
I was shaking with nerves but I said, ‘Oh, hi Charlie. I am good. And you?’
Charlie then spoke to me for a few minutes and I tried very hard to understand everything he said, but it was quite difficult because he spoke quickly and my English was not so good still. After a short while talking together he said he had to go and so we said goodbye.
After we stopped talking, I looked at the phone in my hand for a long time and I felt so excited. I couldn’t believe he had called me. I had actually spoken with a bule and he was so nice to me! Wow, I felt like I was in heaven. I felt like I was floating.
Then I saw Selvey looking at me.
‘Siapa itu? Who was that?’ She asked me.
I didn’t want to tell her, but I was so happy I thought I would burst and so I told her everything. I told her about reading Charlie’s post on the forum and the replies he had received to that. I told her about my first email to him and his reply to me, and then the later emails. I even told her about him giving me his number and me giving him mine.
‘Huh. Kamu gadis berani, ya? You are a brave girl, right?’ is all Selvey said to me. She looked very angry and disappointed in me. I don’t know why. She made me feel sad right after Charlie made me feel happy.
‘Apa, Mbak? What, sis?’ I said to her. I called her Mbak because this is the polite word to use to a lady who is a little bit older than you are. It means older sister or colleague.
I think she realised I was a bit sad and confused because she was then a bit nicer to me. She smiled and said, ‘Tak apa apa, dik (Nothing, young sis). I know you are not a brave girl, but you are naïve. Just be careful ya?’ She said this last bit in English. I don’t know why, because she almost never spoke in English to me.
I was still confused a bit but I just smiled and agreed to be careful.
A few minutes later my phone beeped as I got an sms. I looked at it and saw it was from Charlie. My heart leapt again. I was scared again and excited too.
It read, ‘Hi sari, thx 4 d cht. hp cn mt sn.Cl’ I couldn’t understand it. I read it over and over but it made no sense to me. I knew I couldn’t ask Selvey
