“So, Sister, you were asking what you need to do for this online search,” Fate reminded her.
Just then, her computer made a softdingnoise.
“Oh! You have a poke.”
Gaia’s brows rose. “A poke? Someone poked me?”
Karma chuckled. “It’s an online term.”
Mother Nature shook her head. “I’ll never get used to all these crazy modern expressions. Okay, so tell me what a poke really means.”
Fate grinned. “It means someone saw your profile and likes it. Already! They would like to talk with you.”
“How do I know if I want to talk to them?” Gaia asked.
“Excellent question.” Fate turned the computer screen toward Gaia. “Click on his name, and read his profile. If you’re interested, you can poke him back.”
Gaia chuckled. “Okay. With all this poking, people might wind up with bruises.”
“Think of it like a tap on your shoulder,” Karma added.
Gaia clicked on his name and read a little bit about him and saw his picture. Something about him seemed familiar. “Why does this guy look familiar to me?”
Fate shrugged. “I suppose everyone might look a little familiar to you. You created them, after all.”
“I created infants. Not adults. Their parents raise them. They live their lives. Basically, they create themselves. I simply threw the DNA together. It’s kind of like mixing up a cake batter, putting it in the oven, and then turning it over to someone else.”
“Got it. In that case, I’m not sure why he looks familiar. Karma, does he look familiar to you?”
Fate turned the monitor toward Karma, who took one look and gasped.
“Oh no. You don’t want him. If you ever watched the news, you may have seen his face. Let’s just say you’re too old for him.”
Gaia frowned. “Too old? My age isn’t even on here.”
Karma raised her brows as if to sayPut it together, Sister.
He must like them young.“Oh! Oh no, no, no. Definitely not what I want.” Gaia jumped up. “Let’s go. I’m not sure this online dating is for me.”
Fate put her hand on Gaia’s arm. “Wait. Don’t give up yet. That was just the first one. All you have to do is ignore it. I’m sure there will be others.”
The machine dinged again. Gaia was ready to walk out, but curiosity won her over. She settled back in her chair and glanced at Karma. “You’ll look at all these guys too, right?”
“If you want me to.”
“I most definitely want you to.”
The next poke resulted in a nice picture and profile. This one sounded interesting. Karma knew nothing bad about the person, so Gaia was intrigued. “What do I do about it now? Just poke him back?”
“Yes. If you guys want to communicate for a while before you meet, that would be smart. You can text or email or whatever makes you most comfortable.”
Gaia laughed. “I’m not comfortable with any of these technical contraptions. Now what?”
“Didn’t you talk to your muse of mobile communications? I thought she gave you something to communicate with people.”
Mother Nature reached into her pocket and pulled out the cell phone Kristine had given her. “This? I can talk to him on this? But what if I don’t like him, and then he has my phone number and calls and calls and calls?”
“You can communicate with him another way,” Karma suggested. “Message him on Facebook. If he gets to be a nuisance, you can block him. We’ll show you how.”
