Never Far Away

Submitted by Deborah:

Ben messaged me online and I read his profile before writing back. He had a line in there, separate from the others, that read, "Just because I was born on the right side of the tracks, it doesn't mean that I'm out of touch with what normal people suffer."

It struck me as a pretentious thing to have in a profile, and I wondered if it was a song lyric that I didn't recognize. Either way, it didn't make me want to write him back, so I didn't at first.

He wrote me a second message, a longer one, and seemed so intent on befriending me, that I thought, "Why not?" It was probably silly to ignore the guy because of one line, especially as the rest of his profile was unobjectionable.

Online and by phone, he came across as charming, but loud, as if he was talking to a room full of people at once. It was my idea to meet, as any guy who claims to have done missionary work in Eastern Europe and also have two summer homes, however you slice it, could be an interesting guy.

Curiously, though, he would always be evasive about how he had become so wealthy in the first place. His explanations ranged from "business dealings" to "inheritance," and when I playfully called him on the discrepancy, he brushed it off and said that it was a combination of both.

He took me out to a great place, and I was sure to offer to split the meal, but he would have none of it. "You're a beautiful woman," he said more than once.

I asked him to go into detail about his missionary work. He said that he had been to Poland, Russia, and Germany, and that he had been to the latter for almost a year. He even spoke some German to me.

"My favorite place in Germany was Vienna," he said.

"Vienna's in Austria," I said, "Were you there, too?"

He gave me a funny look and said, "Yeah. Austria. Wait, are you sure?"

I have been to Vienna, and I knew where it was. "Positive," I said, "Did you visit the Stadpark? And the Hofburg?"

He began, "No, I...  I didn't have..."

He started to cry. Talk about awkward! Was it something I had said?

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He said, "There was... there was a girl who..."

I reached my hand across the table. I felt really bad for this guy.

He pulled out two twenties and stood up. He said, "I'm sorry... Austria... I can't do this. I just... I'm sorry."

Putting money down was strange, as we hadn't ordered anything. I picked it up and handed it back to him. He pushed it back to me and said, "I'm sorry," again and left.

I thought it silly for him to give me so much money for nothing, so I threw down a few singles for the waitstaff's trouble, and I followed him out.

He was fast, though, and I lost him.

When I made it home, I put the twenties in an envelope, looked up his address online, and mailed them out.  His profile was blank the next day, and the day after that, he had written new profile essays, making him sound like a completely different person.

Of particular note was the line, "I've never traveled outside the U.S."