by Christine G.

Created on: November 27, 2007

CYBERSPACE CYRANO

"You've got to do it!" Sheridan insisted, spewing saliva in his effort to speak clearly.

Charles squirmed and looked away. Sheddy was his best friend, and his powers of persuasion were considerable-but this? It was just too wild.

"What if we fall in love?" Charles demanded.

"You read too many Harlequin romances. What can happen in two days?"

Charles shook his head. "God knows I'm not a great believer in telling women the truth, but in this case it might be the best plan."

The twitching in Sheridan's legs intensified with emotion. "Look at me! How long do you think she'd hang around if she knew you're not really me?"

Charles tried to look at Sheddy objectively, as a stranger would see him. He had to admit Sheddy's appearance might be a shock. He had so little control of his body that he had to be strapped into his wheel chair. His face and wrists were twisted by cerebral palsy, his left leg had a perpetual twitch, and he drooled.

Charles met Sheddy when they were four years old. After a few curious questions, they accepted each other. Since then he had not thought much about what Sheddy looked like. Sheddy was just Sheddy-passionate, humorous, perceptive. A friend who could see deeply into people without condemning them for seeing him only from the outside. Usually, he had an unerring sense of what was important. But this time, he seemed to have lost his sense of balance.

"You must like this fox a lot," Charles said.

"She is the most beautiful person I know," Sheddy said.

Charles had seen the pastel drawing she had scanned and sent via e-mail. Charles would never have used the word "beautiful" to describe what he saw, but he sensed something seductive about Adle. Her hair was reddish-gold, her wide open eyes a mixture of green and amber, and her bone structure so delicate it seemed possible that she was not human at all, but an earth spirit. The folds of her light green dress flowed around her, suggesting a body that was ethereal rather than sensuous. The huge brown blotch on her left cheek somehow complemented the total effect. It had taken some deliberation to determine that it was not an adornment, but a birth-mark.

"You and I are too different," Charles protested feebly. "She'll know."

"What's to know?" Sheddy asked airily. "I gave your name. I sent your picture. All you have to do is read the letters, and you'll know everything you need to know." His wrist jerked towards a computer disk on his desk. "You have a photographic memory. You can do it."

"I'll

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