It's a clear and sunny morning in New York, the leaves on trees have turned red and orange and there's a brisk cold sting in the air. Kara Danvers wakes to the sound of her boyfriend James Olsen walking into the bedroom reading the newspaper to her.
"Amazing! This is amazing! Listen to this: The entire workforce of Virginia...had Solitaire removed from their computers...because they hadn't done any work in six weeks."
Kara sits up dazed and just looks up at him, "That's so sad."
"Do you know what this is?"
Kara wipes the sleep from her eyes and shakes her head as she tries to wake herself up.
"What we're seeing here is the end of Western civilization as we know it."
James leans in and kisses her on the cheek as he flips the newspaper over, she just smiles and nods, "Oh, hey aren't you late?"
Kara stretches and heads to the bathroom to brush her teeth.
As if he doesn't hear her he babbles on, "Technology. Name me one thing that we've gained from technology."
"Electricity."
''That's one. You think this machine's your friend, but it's not," James throws the newspaper on the bed and swings his jacket on, "I'm out of here," he grabs his briefcase and heads for the door.
Kara shouts from the bathroom, "See you tonight!"
Kara listens and waits to hear the front door close and scampers over to the front door to peek out the window to make sure James is gone before she runs to her laptop to log online. She's been chatting to someone online for awhile lately, a woman she's never met but they talk about just everything. Giddy with excitement Kara finds an email from NY152 with it labeled "Ally" and she eagerly opens the email.
She reads:
Ally is my dog. She loves the streets of New York as much as I do. Although she likes to eat pizza and bagel off the sidewalk...and I prefer to buy them. Ally is a great catcher who was offered a tryout on the Mets. But she chose to stay with me so she could spend 18 hours a day sleeping on a large green pillow the size of an inner tube. Don't you love New York in the fall? Makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms.
Kara smiles to herself and writes back.
Meanwhile across down, Cat Grant is busy pouring herself a glass of orange juice while her high maintenance girlfriend rushes to get out the door and to work. Ally trots over to her bed with a happy dog smile on her face and lays down. Cat tries to read the newspaper as her girlfriend yells to her from the bedroom, "I'm almost ready! Can you press the button on the expresso machine!?"
Cat sighs and goes to press the button on the machine and then back to her newspaper and juice.
"Did you push it!?"
"Yeah. Yes, I pushed it!"
Her girlfriend runs into the kitchen, "I'm so late," slamming her own newspaper down on the table next to Cat's cup of juice making Cat jump while she goes to pour herself a cup of expresso.
"Random House fired Dick Atkins. Good riddance. Murray Chilton died. That's one less person I'm not speaking to. Vince got a great review. He'll be insufferable. Tonight, PEN dinner."
Cat looks at her worried, "Am I going?"
"Cat Grant, you promised," she downs her expresso in one gulp.
Cat sighs, "It's black-tie. Can't I just give money instead? What is it this week? Free Albanian writers? I'm in favor of that."
Cat's girlfriend slides into her lap and hugs her until she relents, "Okay, I'll go. I'll go. You're late."
She quickly stands, "I know, I know," and then runs out the door.
Cat stands and peeks down the hall to the front door and waits to see if she comes back. When she realizes the coast is clear she heads to her home office and straight to her laptop. Ally rushing in to lay at her feet, Cat gives her a pat on the head while she waits. She logs on and sees that she's got mail. She clicks on the email from "Shopgirl" and proceeds to read it.
Dear friend: I like to start my notes to you as if we're already in the middle of a conversation. I pretend that we're the oldest and dearest friends, as opposed to what we actually are, people who don't know each other's names, and met in a chatroom where we both claimed we'd never been before. "What will NY152 say today?" I wonder. I turn on my computer, I wait impatiently as it boots up. I go online, and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words: You've got mail. I hear nothing, not even a sound on the streets of New York, just the beat of my own heart. I have mail. From you.
Cat smiles and waits to respond and instead logs off and leaves for work herself and as she walks to work, briefcase in hand, she doesn't even realize that her and Kara (Shopgirl) have passed each other many times every morning and very soon that's about to change.