A double post day because I love you guys! Thanks again for all your support!

Sheldon

Almost a week had passed since Sheldon had found the phone and what began as a friendly check-in with a kind stranger had morphed into a full-blown virtual relationship.

The odd anonymous friendship with the phone's owner had started with the occasional texts about scientific facts, during which she had briefly mentioned having a passing interest in atomic spectroscopy but that a recent lecture she had attended had bored her.

Sheldon had almost terminated their texting right then and there, reasoning that anyone who did not find atomic spectroscopy interesting wouldn't be worth his precious time. However before he could act on that thought, she had added that the cause of her lack of interest was as a result of the fact that the lecturer didn't know what he was talking about and she had had to correct him several times. At that point Sheldon's admiration for her increased substantially. Sheldon adored anyone who corrected and humiliated lecturers who did not know their subject.

As the week had worn on, their initial daily contact had increased as Sheldon found that he craved more than once a day communication with the mysterious stranger. She responded in kind. Their correspondence consisted of Sheldon's commenting on random facts which Ms. Moxie seemed to thrive on, a welcome change to the failed attempts to expand his current circle of friends' knowledge with his interesting factoids.

Their intellectual duels were an alluring challenge for Sheldon and he would often stay up late searching the internet to find something unusual that he hoped she would find as interesting as he did.

And so they trafficked in knowledge, exchanging links to history articles and literary reviews but it was always an exchange of facts rather than personal data, and to Sheldon, the conversations were a brief respite from the banalities of his usual banter with his friends.

Nevertheless, from the start of their texting exchange, Sheldon could not help but be curious about his new friend. But no matter what personal questions he asked, she always managed to evade a direct answer crafting the conversation away from any exchange of personal information.

He knew she was brilliant, but nothing else; not even her name. Well, he had learned one fact. That she could tie a cherry stem into a knot with just her tongue. No doubt an amazing feat, but hardly personal knowledge.

Despite their increased exchange of, albeit intelligent, interesting and amusing information, Ms. Moxie remained a mystery to Sheldon and the lack of any mutual personal knowledge was becoming an itch that Sheldon needed to scratch. However as the week drew to a close, he received a text from Ms. Moxie in which she expressed some interest in the strange form of Japanese art form called Doradango. Suddenly he thought he saw an opportunity to gain more personal information.

"How did you learn about Doradango? Did you live in Japan?"

"No, I did not, but one can learn about cultural art forms without travel, don't you agree?"

"Yes. I enjoy Tuvan throat singing, though I have never been to Mongolia. But back to the topic. As I understand it, you polish the ball of dirt until it shines? Talk about polishing a turd, as my daddy would have said."

"That's very funny, Marsupialophile."

"Thank you."

"I have never polished a turd, but I imagine the process is similar. Actually it is very delicate work. Fine grains of sand are used to polish the mud so that it looks like a shiny rock, but looks can be deceiving, as it is quite fragile. I think it speaks to our nature. We are made of the bits and detritus of our environment. How we mold it, shapes our identity."

"Would your nature be like a lump of mud polished to shine; easily broken?"

"Aren't we all?"

"I would think I am more solid than that." Sheldon texted back with pride.

"Or you appear to be."

"Well said. When you are done with the rock, would you put your name on it?"

"Yes, if I could, but there is something so sublime about seeing a dirty mass of dirt polished to a perfect sphere."

"And pray tell, what would that name be?" Sheldon could feel his grip tighten on his phone as he watched the three little dots that indicated she was responding, but the 45 seconds tortured him.

Finally her answer appeared on his screen, "Moxie's mud, if you must know."

Sheldon smiled with a hint of disappointment and said to himself, "Sublime indeed."

Another group dinner arrived before he had the opportunity to gather any more clues about her background. Leonard and Penny had gone to a movie after dinner. Sheldon, having declined their halfhearted invitation to join them, sat in his spot enjoying the silence left by their absence before contacting Ms. Moxie.

Their conversation started off as it always did, with the question of the day, this one revolving around beverages. After a rather energetic debate over which state had the best iced tea. Sheldon insisting on Texas, with Ms. Moxie being adamant that it was the mint tea from Virginia that she enjoyed. This seemed too good an opportunity to miss to delve into the deep well of Ms. Moxie's background. So taking a quick sip of his chosen beverage in honor of the question in hand, he eagerly typed:

"It would be wonderful to know more about your background Ms. Moxie, so I can convince you of the merits of Texan Tea."

"I thought Texas Tea was Oil, at least that's what the Beverly Hillbillies taught us."

"I don't know them. Are they a country band?"

"Never mind, it's a pop culture reference. I will send you another link to IMDB."

"Thank you. I love how you help me broaden my horizons and extend my knowledge of areas I had not previously thought worthy of my interest"

Sheldon gripped his phone tightly, and typed:

"And speaking of interest, I really would like to know more about you. I can assure you, I am not a crazed stalker or worse, an Amway salesman."

"Oh dear! AMWAY! I would not like that."

"Neither would I. My mother got roped into that pyramid scheme after church one evening, and we had enough vitamins to turn one's urine into a kaleidoscope of colors."

"I avoid artificial vitamins and prefer my intake of nutrients the old fashioned way."

Moxie was also very good at avoiding a subject, Sheldon noticed.

"As do I, but back to the original topic. I really would like to get to know more about you by starting with the - as you have said - 'old fashioned way."

"Excuse me?"

"The old fashion way. You know, Hello my name is... fill in the blank."

"Oh that."

"I think that would make our conversations more interesting."

Sheldon moved over to his computer and opened a browser preparing to type in her name as soon as she sent it so he could find out all about her.

"I disagree, not knowing something about me opens up a wealth of opportunities for discussions on uncharted territories. I know that the first thing you would do is Google me and so knowing something about me might censor your inquiries. And do you really want to tell a perfect stranger everything about yourself?"

Sheldon closed his laptop in frustration, and then responded.

"There is a wealth of extremely interesting information that strangers should know about me."

"I'm sure you are fascinating, but let that be discovered. No assumptions. The anonymity will allow you to say anything you want, without judgment."

Sheldon wasn't quite ready to give up on knowing everything since it was 'kinda his thing'. It vexed him that not only was he still in the dark about her, but also that she had managed to circumnavigate him yet again. But what agitated him more was that she knew nothing about him. She never asked him personal questions. He was a marvel and she should know his brilliance or at least his stellar accomplishments.

"But if you don't know anything about me, how will you know I have two doctorates or that I hate botany?"

"What if you found out I was a Botanist?"

Sheldon hesitated, disliking the flavor of disappointment that even his favored Texas tea could not dislodge. However, deciding that she would be worth putting up with some plants, as long as it wasn't a Venus Fly Trap, he would tolerate it, he responded.

"I would try not to hold it against you and curb my disdain."

"As easy as it is to hide emotions over text, I might still know. And so I would never speak to you about anything to do with plants and then you would never know that I have read the Secret Life of Plants or The Botany of Desire (a Plant's eye view of the world) and as a result now have a better understanding of Irish potato famine or about human desire. We would never discuss it. This way, our conversations will be freer flowing. Who knows what we will learn?"

"A book about desire and botany sounds like an oxymoron."

"My point is that you shouldn't limit yourself. What if you found out I was a geologist or even a Biologist?"

"Again, I would exercise restraint and not disparage your poor choice of study but at least you would be educated."

"True, so what would you say if I said I was a high school dropout? Would you stop talking to me if you learned I was a waitress or worked in a shop?"

"Train shop?"

"No."

Again Sheldon paused as he considered the possibility that indeed this woman could be anyone. She could be the lady on the bus today wearing a wool coat covered with cat hair. She could be the counter girl at the drug store, or the janitor at the library. She could be 300 pounds or thin as a rail, but he realized that none of that mattered. She could be any race or age, he really didn't care. What he did know was that he didn't want to stop their conversations. Working at a train store would have been a big bonus, though.

"Well, too bad about the train shop, but I would still talk to you."

"What if you found out I was an Art History major."

"Hold on now, let's not get too crazy here. I think I get your point. But just because you don't want to reveal anything about yourself, don't you want to know something about me."

"I want to know everything about you."

Sheldon breathed out with a relieved sigh then texted:

"Good, you won't be disappointed."

He started to type in his entire resume. It was going to be a daunting challenge to do this via text, but he would rise to it, rather than deny her the opportunity to admire his brilliance, but received a text from Ms Moxie before he could complete it,

"However I want to learn about you in my own way. For my discovery of you to be at my own pace, so that facets of you can be revealed, rather than explained."

Sheldon groaned and quickly deleted his curriculum vitae. He typed quickly,

"I think you might get a false of impression of me if you don't know the truth. Or worse, I could lie and say I am stupid and say I love that band you mentioned the Beverly Hillbillies, or some such silliness."

"Then we need to have rules. Rule one, No lying."

"I like rules. Agreed."

"So Rule Two: No Personal Information. And by the way, I had figured that you were well educated, so two doctorates is fact not news."

Typing his reply, Sheldon felt a slight twinge of irritation that she wasn't more impressed with his education.

"I still don't see why you can't know anything about me?"

"I will know everything and nothing about you at the same time. Therefore our conversations won't be hindered by preconceived notions or expectations. It will be like the Schrodinger Cat of social relationships. We can't assume anything, so it will expand our minds."

"You really don't want to know about my two doctorates. It's quite impressive."

"I want to see if I can guess them, and you can see what you can guess about me."

"Like a game?" Sheldon perked up.

"Yes. But we cannot reveal anything we guess until an agreed upon time. Then I will tell you what I think your education entails."

"Agreed, and for a proper game, we need to set precise parameters. I say 3 days."

"Three Months, and no cheating."

Sheldon texted furiously, "Two months and I send you my resume."

"No resumes, no photos ever, no in person contact, and I will agree to 4 weeks."

She was a hard bargainer. Sheldon had met his match. Perhaps when the experiment was over, he could talk her into helping him negotiate a better price at the aforementioned train store. He texted back:

"OK. One month, and I promise, no cheating..."

"Agreed."

Sheldon had to allow that having a conversation with someone without knowing a thing about them would make it more thought-provoking. And though he was unsure how long they would be able to keep up the complete anonymity, he was willing to try as long as he didn't have to concede to Penny's favorite motto, 'Not knowing is half the fun'. Sheldon finally texted back to Ms. Moxie,

"Well I am warming to the idea, and think that it will be quite intriguing, though I would still like to know your name."

"Already trying to circumvent the rules I see. Let's try this instead...What do you want it to be?"

"Something simple. Short, easy to say... rolls off the tongue. For now, I hope you are fine with your name, Moxie."

"I am. In fact, I would like you to continue to call me that. I have to say though, yours is a little awkward, Marsupialophile. You wouldn't believe what autocorrect wanted to call you. Mars- Pull or something silly."

"I can see that."

Sheldon thought that wouldn't have been too bad. Gravity and all that but he really didn't like the name that wasn't his.

"Well, you can name yourself."

"Really?"

"SURE! Whatever you would like it to be, that's what it will be. It can be anything, just let your imagination flow and pick your favorite name. See how much fun this is?"

"It is fun! Then my favorite name is... Sheldon."

"Then that is your name, to me anyway. I love that name... Sheldon."

Sheldon felt his heart give a slight jump seeing her type out his name. He reasoned he wasn't breaking the new rules, since he thought his name was the best and she did say he could choose ANYTHING he wanted.

The next text caused him to smile as well:

"Like Sheldon Glashow, the Nobel laureate for physics."

Sheldon quickly wrote back with a smug grin,

"A Sheldon who is into physics, who would have thought? But he was at that hippy school, Berkeley, so not as good as some Sheldons, I must say."

"Obviously, but I imagine a universe with a lot of Sheldon's like you would be a lot of fun."

"You'd have to imagine it until we break the barrier between alternate universes."

"I will wait. I am very patient."

Sheldon let out a groan, and said to himself, "I'm glad one of us is."

Moxie:

He wanted to know her name and she hesitated. The question came after a wonderful discussion about Doradango which topped a week of invigorating intellectual ping pong. She hadn't felt so connected to a person in her life, though the connection wasn't real. He was a stranger. But one with a mind like none she had experienced. She lost herself in the duels of data.

She had enjoyed the anonymity of their interactions. Not to mention the challenge to keep personal information from their conversations, despite his increasing curiosity. They didn't need to exchange names. She knew that he would just look her up in a google search, as she would do for him. Then it occurred to her that it would be an excellent experiment to see just how far this could continue.

There was no need to know his name, what he looked like or how he dressed. She didn't need to know that about him and he really did not need to know that about her. What would be the point? She had no intention of getting 'involved' as the romantics would suggest. She was doing just fine on her own.

This was going to be a very interesting experiment. They had a month to guess each other's background and career but she had already guessed his within a day of texting him. Though he had a wide range of interesting topics, it was the texts about physics that lit up her phone most frequently. He was definitely a physics major; a weaker science than neuroscience which she planned to use to win this contest. It can't be cheating if he can use the same tricks. He just didn't know them.

On her usual solitary lunch break as she ate at her desk, she made a few purchases: phone stands so she could see the text while she worked. She also downloaded a few wonderful papers on Physics, one by a man named Dr. Sheldon Cooper at Cal Tech and another by Dr. Sheldon Glashow, both of which were brilliant and stood out from the others. Before she made her drive back from Westwood to her apartment, she turned on the function to have her car read out his texts. Between her podcasts and his texts, she had the best one hour and half commute she'd ever had.

I wonder who will win this contest... hmmm... Can you guess who Moxie is?

PS anyone catch the reference to Mars Pull from my Sheldon Five story? I can't help myself. Forgive me.