Day 4 – An Honourable Man

SKYE BLUE

It’s 2009 all, and by now most of you know that choosing to date online is fraught with risks. Some of these risks are the same ones you’d face were you to meet a random stranger in at the local pub, and others are more specific to the medium. In either case using good ol’ common sense will generally keep you out of trouble, right? Well, as they say, common sense really ain’t so common and keeping your wits about you may get a little tricky when you’re swept away by L-O-V-E.

‘Skye, God is so good,’ Khai, my devoutly Christian friend, announced as she slid into the booth across from me. ‘I’ve finally met the man I’ve been praying for all my life.’

‘I could tell something was up from the moment I saw you – you’re beaming. Where’d you meet him at church?’ I said, sipping my water.

‘No. Online about two weeks ago.’ Khai shimmied out of her jacket and picked up a menu. ‘Trina, told me to go on one of those Christian matching sites and I met him almost as soon as I got online. His name is Chris, but he likes to be called Kofi.’

My spidey sense started to tingle, but I didn’t want to rain on her parade just yet so I set about asking questions. ‘Oh, is he from Toronto? Have you met him yet?’

‘I wish. He’s from DC, and he’s an engineer. He has his own business. Right now he’s working out in Nigeria. He’s been there for six months.’

RED ALERT! RED ALERT! Proceed with caution. ‘I see.’

Now, just so you know folks, Khai is someone I’ve known all my life. We grew up on the same street and for a while there our parents were even friends. Although, she and I don’t have much in common anymore, except a whole lot of history, I’ve kept in touch with her because I worry about her. She has a tendency to make what I’ll call ‘interesting’ choices when it comes to men, based on her naïveté, and belief that everyone that says they’re a believer has the same moral compass she does. This was why I was so nervous as she started to discuss her new ‘American’ love interest, who just happened to be in Nigeria – Internet romance fraud capital of the world.

I forced a smile. ‘Really, when is he heading back home?’ I asked, fanning the waitress away so she wouldn’t interrupt our conversation.

‘You’re not going to believe this Skye. We met at the perfect time. His contract is almost up and he’ll be coming to Toronto to see me in two weeks, if everything goes well with the final shipment he has to get to his client.’

‘What did you say he did again?’

‘He’s a mechanical engineer by trade, but he’s in some kind of supervisory role. He has to get a shipment of parts for some project they’re working on out there.’

‘Really. Tell me more.’

As Khai rambled on about her new found ‘soul mate’ I learned among other things, that the only thing standing between their meeting in two weeks was the shipment of some much needed parts that were being held on a dock somewhere in Egypt until he could raise the ‘$4000 US’ to have it sent to Lagos. I also learned that he had yet to ask her for money (Thank God), and that he’d asked her to pray that he’d get the money in time. She also told me that she was sure that Kofi was the answer to all her prayers for a good man had. God had sent her perfect match, a man who loved her, was a good Christian and who wanted to be married and have a family as much as she did.

‘You should hear the things he says to me on the phone, he’s so romantic.’ Khai smiled whistfully. ‘If you told me even the day before I met him that I would find the man of my dreams on the internet, I would’ve laughed – but here I am in love.’

Wow. In love. I chose to ignore her comments about being in love and instead focused my attention on what I could handle – their phone chats. ‘You’ve spoken to him on the phone?  What does he sound like?’

‘It’s funny, you should ask me that, Skye. He’s been there so long he starting to sound African,’ she said, with a laugh. ‘It’s a good thing, they probably respond better to him when he’s conducting business because of it.’

HUH?!?!?!? Isn’t that a clear sign he’s not actually an American? I wanted to bang my head against the table. ‘Really? It’s pretty hard to pick up an African accent, Khai and he has only been there for six months. You sure this guy’s really American?’

She shook her head and laughed again. ‘Oh Skye, you’ve always been so suspicious.  He’s sent me pictures of him and his family in the States. Plus on his website his company has an American address and phone number.’ She paused and smiled. ‘Don’t worry this is a good thing. Chris is an honourable man – I can feel it.’

Damn right I’m suspicious. That night when I got home, I looked up the website address Khai had given me for his business. I called the number and there was no answer, not even a machine. Furthermore, the site itself was a wreck – a two-pager with a few pictures of engines and some blurbs of text that were definitely not written by a native English speaker. I have confirmed my doubts, now to convince Khai that I was right.

I called her back the next day and every day for the next week, but failed to get a hold of her. My spidey sense was going nuts. Something was up and I knew it was big. She was dodging me for a reason. Realizing there was nothing I could do, I waited to hear from her, knowing that she would call when she was ready to.

I didn’t have to very wait long. She called about 10 days after we had last seen each other, and she wasn’t quite as cheery.

‘Khai, what’s wrong?’ I asked, knowing from her voice that bad news was coming.

‘Skye, it turns out Chris wasn’t so honourable after all.’ She paused and I braced myself. ‘He asked me to lend him $2500 US, because he couldn’t raise all the money he needed himself. I stupidly sent it, and now he’s gone. He hasn’t called me in days, and I haven’t gotten any emails. I’ve think been duped.’

Three weeks of romancing a woman online and he made $2500. I need a new gig. ‘Oh Khai, why did you send money to a man you’ve never even laid eyes on?’

‘Skye, he told me told me that he loved me so many times,’ she whispered, into the phone, ‘and he prayed with me every time we spoke. There was never a reason to doubt him.’

Right.

A word to the wise: When it comes to love y’all – God, money and the internet don’t mix.

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