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KEELEY’S MAY 31-DAY CHALLENGE

From Online Backgammon Flirting to More

Was he ever a pen pal?

Karen Schwartz
3 min readMay 25, 2023

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Backgammon, Game, Wood image. Free for use from Pixabay

Day Twenty-five prompt: Have you ever had a pen pal? If so, can you tell me about them?

I’ve never had a pen pal, so is that the end of the story? The only letters I’ve written were to my parents from sleepover camp. I remember that first heart-wrenching note claiming homesickness. The Mom, please “bring me home” announcement which threatened a hunger strike until my parents came for me. However, when my mother called the camp and spoke with me, she learned I befriended the camp director’s dog and took him for daily walks. All was now good, and after that, the letters became more positive. Still, I didn’t return to that camp again, so the letter-writing stopped.

I once wrote a letter to Milk-Bone as a child when I didn’t receive the dog tag I ordered. Then later, I wrote a letter to The Seeing Eye asking what courses I should take so they would hire me. Neither were pen pals, so I guess neither counts.

The closest I ever came to a pen pal was emailing a man I met living in Brisbane through online backgammon. We didn’t know each other before playing, but the flirting quickly began, as did an online relationship. I knew it was wrong as he admitted to playing backgammon and chatting with me…

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Karen Schwartz
Karen Schwartz

Written by Karen Schwartz

Children's picture book author, fiction writer, personal essayist, kindness specialist, and lover of chocolate.

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