Little Hawk,

Perhaps I'm more serious than you care to admit.

Lena wrote, 'I got an audio-letter from a friend today who saw my ex boyfriend.Funny he's still alive.It used to sound like he couldn't wait so come to me hear in Oz and that it was killing him.Far from being dead,he forgot about me and left me without a word. I wonder why it's always like that,every single time.And I do crazy things,fly miles,cross continents,it's always useless.End of the tragedy.I feel better now.It's true I always find myself alone.But at least i won't die a-ok,enough.'

Did you tell her that you understood her hurt? That we've all been there and felt horrible? That, yes, men like you and me often act like jerks? That her ex may have felt that her leaving was a rejection? That he may have hurt inside and felt that he couldn't live without her and then found himself adjusting to hurt and anger and to life without her just like she is adjusting to her hurt and getting on with her life? Did you tell her that we all do crazy emotional things? That she doesn't have to be alone? That she should look around at all the interesting people in that part of the globe? That it's difficult to reach out and touch someone on another contenient unless you're as well endowed as Spaw and his uncles? That proximity to other warm blooded beings matters a lot in spite of our feelings that only one person can fill that huge hole in our hearts?

No. You told her she was lucky because , 'It's the girlfriends who absolutely REFUSE to disappear that have just about driven me to jump off a handy cliff a few times in the last 30 years.' The girlfriends are to blame. The crazy women. The stalkers. The ones crazy enough to fly contenients to meet the men they miss. We should be so lucky, Little Hawk.

You carried this girlfriend who won't quit theme into your story about your friend David. When I have time, I'd like to deal with that story but, I'd like to say for now, and for mudcatters who know my real name, Little Hawk's friend David in that message is not his pal David with the bad hair.

david