Naughty Bytes

Sally outlines the diary in her lap with her finger. “You hold the key to why I am sitting here alone instead of being with my family.” She forced a chuckle while the tears welled up. She thought about what happened today. The anger, the hurt and frustration her daughter voiced at her.
“How could you say this?” Debi said.
Sally saw the face of her daughter as she held Sally’s phone. Sally gulped. “Give me the phone, please. You don’t understand.”
“No, I don’t,” Debi said. She ran out of the room. “Dad, Mom is texting men and using foul language. She is an adulterer. You need to leave her. Dad, there are nude pictures. She doesn’t feel guilty for what she has done!”
Sally had gone to the bedroom. Gabe walked in. “Let me see,” he said.
Sally showed him the topless woman. He said, “Tell your friends to me mindful of what they send you. Did you ever want those on your nipples?”
Sally laughed. “No, but I did have them once,” she said as he walked out of the room. Sally leaned against the bed to steady her body and deleted the texts. She straightened her clothing and fluffed her hair to walk out. Debi didn’t look at her for the rest of the day. She was out shopping with her father tonight. Instead of with Sally like they had planned for two weeks. A girls night out they had been calling it.
Staring out the window Sally noticed a leaf falling from the tree. The wind caught it and it was gliding back and forth in the wind. It was moving effortlessly, relying on the wind. She watched it finally land on the ground, gingerly. Amazing, how similar this was to her life, a gentle downward flight from where she had been a year ago to the place she was at now. She opened the diary to the first page and started reading.

Dear Anonymous Diary (AD for short,) Jan.

Another year has ended. I can’t believe I am doing this! I feel like a teenager again. I have been emailing Tom for over a year now. I can’t believe I saw him at the Christmas dinner for the county Christian youth center. At least he didn’t recognize me. Now that I realize that I never sent him my face and I had clothes on at the dinner. But I did tell him a few days later that I saw him there and felt that we should cool the cyber sex that we had been doing. I tend to encourage his work with the youth more now. But while I was on the web surfing for new friends I signed up for a website where I could meet and chat with more people. I am so excited.

Sally laughed. “How naive you are woman. It was not a friend site but a sex site!”

to be cont.