My Best Friend - Then and Now... Part 4

I was surfing... the internet that is. Scrolling through hundreds of "white page" entries in search of my childhood friend who went MIA on me. As I had no current address, I was forced to enter her father's name and the city where she lived last. I had two problems: 1) Houston is a big ass city with millions of people 2) JJ's father was unlisted. I was just about to give up hope and shut the computer down, when out of nowhere a message popped up on my screen! Guess who it was?!?! No, not JJ, but it WAS Joy! She had found me through a people search on AOL's Instant Messanger program! AND she had all the information I needed to get back in touch with JJ. She even had a screenname for her that I could use to find her online and chat with her like Joy and I were doing at that very moment. I quickly plugged JJ's screenname into my "buddy list." She wasn't online, but according to Joy, her older brother was. "Alan" was the brother I had never met. Oh, I had spoken to him on the phone once or twice while attempting to call JJ, but he was six years older than JJ and me and I wasn't even sure he still lived at home. For all I knew, he could be married with kids and living in another state. But what did I have to lose? I entered his screenname into my buddylist as well and continued with my quest to get in touch with JJ once more. I sent Alan a message telling him who I was, and not really expecting him to answer. After all, I was just a friend of his kid sister. Why would he want to talk to me? I don't know...maybe he was just bored that night, but he answered that message...and many many more. (In the famous words of the infamous Birdie... TO BE CONTINUED...)