They had been a great couple; everybody said so. And then what happened? Hadn’t Mandy been involved in their breakup? Yes, in a way, remembered Candy. Brian was a great partner but… She had to admit that after the first few weeks, the excitement and thrill of their encounter had all but vanished. Their relation had reached a plateau where the romance and the passion of the first days could not survive, and she was eager to find something new. Someone new. That was how Mandy came to her life, as an alt who allowed her to explore different venues, to meet new people, to live torrid romances with strangers. An evergrowing roster of friends, boyfriends, and simple acquaintances had paraded through Mandy’s life, while Candy played the devoted goody-two-shoes girlfriend to Brian. “Everything has an end— except for the sausages, which have two,” her Grampa used to say. And in the case of her relationship with Brian, the end came in the most unexpected way, as it usually happens. One day, Brian logged in at a time he never did, only to find Mandy using the sex bed he had worked so hard to buy. There was some furry character with her, but one of which you’d need an advanced degree in Zoology to tell his genus or species. Anyway, he disappeared as soon as Brian materialized from the orange cloud. But Mandy wasn’t as quick, mainly because her typist happened to be in the kitchen when Brian barged in the room. Oh, and by the way, it must be said that both Candy and Mandy looked exactly the same. No wonder: they both went to the same stores (especially those who offered group gifts) and had the same taste in clothes, shoes, and hair. They also were in the same groups, as he could confirm by checking Mandy’s profile, and thus, Brian could easily put one and one together and determine that his ‘loving girlfriend’ was two-timing him via an alt.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL REVISITED
