Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 27, 1994 TAG: 9407230001
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When the airplane's landing gear touched the Tarmac at West Palm Beach Airport she felt the urge to smack a hand to each cheek and howl in the manner of Macaulay Culkin's mimic of Edvard Munch's ``The Scream.''
What in the heck was she doing?!
Inside that airport was a man she'd never met, but had exchanged her entire life with over the phone and in long letters. Until now, he was simply the nicest guy she'd never met. He was Bob344, a sailor in Connecticut she met as Kathleen33 during a journey along America Online, a trendy stretch of the information superhighway. A man she met in a computer area called the ``Flirts' Nook'' for Pete's sake.
Inside that airport was more than a nice, gentle voice on the phone or a thoughtful guy who sent roses and wine to the office.
Inside that airport was a real person.
It was three months since she'd ``met'' him. Two months since the article ran. Co-workers, friends, sisters, bartenders, auto mechanics were all asking the same question that a local attorney stopped her with one night in the newspaper's parking lot:
``Aren't you the one who met the guy on the computer? So tell me, what about Bob?!''
What about Bob...
This meeting almost didn't happen. She had a family emergency. His orders changed - twice. She couldn't get the right flights.
Maybe it would be best, he suggested, if they just waited until he got back from his next duty assignment. In three months. They didn't like that, but he hated the idea of her flying all the way to Florida for them to just spend a day together.
``Look,'' she finally told him. ``In `Sleepless in Seattle,' Meg Ryan flew all the way out to Seattle and never even got to talk to Tom Hanks. It was something she just had to do.''
Not only that, but she was even writing a similar story. Yes, Meg Ryan was playing a reporter for the Baltimore Sun.
If Meg could do this, so could she.
Her eyes searched the crowd.
There he was, her 6-foot 5-inch sailor with the clear blue eyes and big bright smile.
There was Bob.
She dropped her luggage, and he wrapped his arms around her.
Their original plans were to re-create the dinner and dance in the French restaurant they'd shared on the computer. But because of time constraints, they settled for lunch in Boca Raton and dancing to ``Broken Arrow'' on a cassette in a boom box.
He'd even brought her a broken arrow. But it was confiscated in the Bahamas where he'd left his submarine when customs determined it to be a weapon.
They talked and laughed. Held hands and hugged and kissed. And smiled more in one day either could remember.
At 7 p.m., she took him to the airport to catch his flight back to Connecticut. He told the woman taking the tickets that he wanted to be the very last person to board that plane. That he didn't want to get on until he absolutely had to.
Over and over he whispered, ``This is going to work. This is going to work'' as he hugged her good-bye. He walked backwards onto that plane and didn't break eye contact until he absolutely had to.
So. What about Bob? Is he everything she'd hoped he'd be, people ask.
Yes. And more.
Bob left in June for three months of submarine sea duty, during which correspondence will be minimal. He plans to visit Roanoke when he returns in September.
by CNB