It's a clear and sunny morning in Salem, the leaves on trees have turned red and orange and there's a brisk cold sting in the air. Tally Craven wakes to the sound of her boyfriend Gerit Buttonwood 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."
Tally sits up dazed and just looks up at him, "That's so sad."
"Do you know what this is?"
She 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."
Gerit 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?"
Tally stretches and slips from the bed reluctantly 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."
Mumbling through her toothpaste, "Electricity."
''That's one. You think this machine's your friend, but it's not," Gerit 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.
Tally shouts from the bathroom, "See you tonight!"
She listens and waits to hear the door close and scampers over to the front door to peek out the window to make sure he 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 Tally finds an email from SA152 with it labeled "General" and she eagerly opens the email.
She reads:
General is my dog. She loves the streets of Salem as much as I do. Although she likes to eat pizza and bagel off the sidewalk...and I prefer to buy them. General 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 Salem 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.
Tally smiles to herself and writes back.
Meanwhile, Sarah Alder is busy pouring herself a glass of orange juice while her high maintenance girlfriend rushes to get out the door and to work. General trots over to her bed with a happy dog smile on her face and lays down. Sarah 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 espresso machine!?"
Sarah sighs and goes to press the button on the machine and then back to her newspaper and juice.
"Did you push it!?"
Sarah paushes from her newspaper in response, "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 Sarah's cup of juice, making Sarah jump while she goes to pour herself a cup of espresso.
"Random House fired Alban Hearst. Good riddance. Blanton Silver died. That's one less person I'm not speaking to. Vince got a great review. He'll be insufferable. Tonight, PEN dinner."
Sarah looks at her worried, "Am I going?"
"Sarah Alder, you promised," she downs her espresso in one gulp.
Sarah 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," her 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.
Sarah 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. General rushing in to lay at her feet, Sarah gives her a pat on the head while she waits for the laptop to boot up. 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 SA152 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 Salem, just the beat of my own heart. I have mail. From you.
Sarah 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 Tally (Shopgirl) have passed each other many times every morning and very soon that's about to change.
