"Oh, why can't people mind their business?" Melody wailed, full of rejection. She was happy with Cal and he was happy with her; they were in love with each other. Why should it matter how they met as long as they met? The decision to marry was up to them to make. Clearly it hadn't been a light one. Their correspondences had been full of hopeful plans and ideas; they had discussed every possibility and made up their own minds. The mother hadn't been a part of their private affairs therefore she could know nothing of all the details they had hammered out or the conclusions they had reached. Why should she have the last say in the course of their lives?

Calvin had always been a bit nervous about their online relationship. Naturally he had wished it to be more physical; so did Melody. All they talked about over the last months had been finally being together in the same place at the same time. The fleeting meetings hadn't been quite enough. Yet, all of a sudden, every chance of a weekend together or a vacation had been trampled on. Cal was obligated to other plans and other destinations when it seemed he was getting too close to Melody.

And so Calvin finally ended it with Melody. There was no path forward, he stated. No way to make a plan, he explained. No, of course not, she agreed. How could there be when someone else was always standing in the way.