Wayan (to Brad):
Thanks for hooking me up with
Jonathan of Oxford. Last night he and I were finally in Oxford at
the same time and I invited him over for dinner. Cool guy! He
reminds me of a good friend of mine from Russia, very relaxed yet
intense, and always excellent at a dinner party.
Brad:
Wayan, My mind is going, but
I am not sure that I know Jonathan. Please remind me how I do.
Wayan:
Hmm... this is getting good,
since you're the one who told me to meet up with him. He's a Ph.D.
student at Oxford, studying the history of a French family in the
1700's and said he used to hang with you in your Oxford Days.
He lived in DC and NYC before
UK and I think my wife said it the best when, just after he left,
she was dancing around the room singing, "He is the gay! He
is the gay!" Yeah, Jingmei needs to get out more often.
Brad:
All right, this is getting
good, because I never had any Oxford Days. You have to be getting
me confused with someone else and so does he. I think the two of
us have been traveling too long and don't know whom we know
anymore. I am almost 100% certain I have never met the guy.
Mysteries progress...
Wayan:
Actually, would you refresh
my memory as to how we know each other? I have the vague memory
that you're a friend of a guy who was bicycling across Russia, who
my parents met in a St Petersburg hostel.
Brad:
No, no, no. I had read your
web site and sent you an email. You sent me some smart-assed but
informative response back and it went from there. You ended up
being a step ahead of everywhere I was going. You left Beijing
about a week before I got there to stay with a friend and then you
took close to the same route to Sydney.
Wayan:
Then that means you are
completely different than the guy Jonathan (of Woologong, not Oxford) was talking about. THAT was the cyclist and Jonathan (of Woologong, not Oxford)was
the friend.
Wayan (to Jonathan of
Oxford):
Who the hell are you?! I just
thanked Brad for introducing us and he's never heard of you.
Imposter, explain yourself!
Jonathan of Oxford:
Very, very, interesting. I
just snuck into your life uninvited! All is going as planned for
my sabotage; and I would have gotten away with it too if it
weren't for those meddling kids!
Actually, the Brad in
question just graduated from Purdue University then spent a few
months in China. He's NOT in Central Europe (that should have been
a clue to me), but he DOES send regular email updates en masse,
the way you were talking the other night. I will write to him and
ask him how he knows who you are.
How amazingly odd.
Brad of Purdue:
Okay, this is the right Brad, now living in Chicago and here is the full circle: I was given your email address from Karen. She met you while she was working in Moscow when you were training for Peace Corps. I went to school with her at Purdue, and I had emailed you about advice for living and moving to China. I was the one that introduced you to you Jonathan of Oxford. I've just finished my work in Nanjing, China and there are the six degrees of separation.
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