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Hello, beautiful

Merit Badge Project. "Merit Badge Projects"  [13+] Secret Admirer Project.

Write a story or poem using the following prompt: You have been receiving romantic letters from a mystery someone for the last three weeks. Now they want to meet you face to face. What happens?

Nice meeting you ~ out of the blue came a friendship request on Facebook

I have discovered Facebook a long time ago. It’s nice to have a forum where friends can meet and share items on topics of interest. Now and again I am online when one of my buddies is too and we chat. Sometimes briefly, sometimes for hours. It’s fun, it’s innocent, it’s social networking and part of communicating in the twenty-first century.

But on this Monday morning, I received an anonymous friendship request from a guy called Peter. Normally I click away such nonsense immediately; there is no reason to take such a request seriously if it comes from complete strangers. Why should I? I am an independent woman with a small close knitted group of friends and that’s enough for me.

But this particular message intrigued me.

The request came from someone called Peter from South Africa, and the picture showed a landscape with mountains.

Now, it happened to be that South Africa was one of the countries on my bucket list; I really wanted to visit there some day, so I got side tracked for a moment and clicked on the Confirm Request Button without even knowing it. The connection was made instantly; we were now “friends” on Facebook.

I totally forgot about it until a week later there appeared a message on my personal page. It was the stranger from South Africa.

It read:

“Hello beautiful,
I have wanted to meet you ever since I saw your picture on the internet. I normally don’t bother to act on such a thing, but this was different and I thought to write you this message. How are you in your part of the world? Are you happy, with many friends and loved ones? Are you married with kids? I love to write to you if that’s okay. Greetings from Lesotho, South Africa.
Peter.”

It was such a simple note, without a doubt nothing really special, but it spoke to me right away. And I answered back.

Within minutes there was a reply, very personal, witty and full of good-natured humor.

The next hour we chatted and chatted. By the end of the week, we spoke on Facebook every day and part of the night.

Slowly but gradually I got used to his messages, they were simple but eloquent and they touched my core.

We exchanged email addresses and for the next weeks, we were corresponding every day with long emails. I got used to Peter and he was on my mind a lot.

Then suddenly, out of the blue, he wanted to meet me. I was exhilarated. This wonderful man seemed like an answer to my prayers, a welcome asset to my lonely world…and he wanted to travel 5814 miles to see me? Me, lonely, awkward me, this girl with a simple job in a shoe factory? With no real attachment in the world except for family and some close friends? Could he be the boyfriend I was longing for? Could he be my Prince Charming? I had to find out!

I never hesitated and agreed we should meet in Amsterdam. He should travel by plane on a preset date and I would meet him at the airport.

I was so ecstatic, I was humming every day, my life was upside down and my future was bright. I secretly was falling in love with this guy and I was a bit nervous to our final meet.

On June first I traveled to the airport in great anticipation.

At the set time, nobody came out of the traveler’s area and after one hour of patiently waiting I got a little worried. So I rang him on the phone.

He immediately answered and was audibly upset. Something had happened. He was still in Lesotho, but he got mugged. All of his money was gone. He couldn’t come to Holland to visit. Unless?

I immediately understood what I had to do. I transferred 2000 euro to his account, and since he would pay back the amount immediately after arrival I was completely sure this was the right thing to do.

I wanted to see my lovely man so bad it ached…

Of course, I never heard of him ever again!

He left me heartbroken, lonely and alone, with a debt of 2000 euro.
I was scammed good!

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