My cellphone’s beeping sound woke me up one night. Used to receiving important messages only. I grabbed my cell and sleepily pushed the keys and read the message.

“Hi there, care to be my textmate?”

Not knowing who the sender was. I deleted the message right away and placed the phone on my bedside table, I tried to go back to sleep.

I had just closed my eyes when I heard the message tone again.

“Hi there, again! Care to be my textmate?” again, the message said.

“Who the hell could this be asking for textmate at the wee hours of the night?” I asked myself.

Again, without bothering to reply I deleted the message.

I was never a ‘textmaniac’ – someone who enjoys texting anyone and everyone even at the wee hours of night, not to mention during the day. My parents, who were always out of the country forced me to own a cellphone. They told me that having one was more convenient – they could monitor me even if they’re miles away.

I wanted to turn the unit off, but since my mother was fond of calling me at night, just to check if I was safe at home, I decided not to/

Just as I was to close my eyes and return to my dreamless sleep, the phone beeped again.

Same number. . .Such determination!

“Please reply to this message and be an angel and save me from this abyss of emptiness!”

I never knew why, but the message struck me. I got up and pushed the keys. I just realized I was replying to the message.

“I’m not an angel, if you want someone to save you, i’m not Superman. I’m just a simple person who you wake up at this hour of my night! Anyway, do I know you?” I typed.

Seconds later came the reply.

“Nope. You don’t know this lonely soul. Nor does she know you. But I want to be your friend. I’m Dara Park. You?”

“Just call me GD! How’d you get my no.?” I sent back.

“Hi GD, nice to meet you. Just shuffled the last two digits of mine,” she replied.

That was the first and maybe the last time I met someone over the cellphone.

We exchanged messages and learned so much about each other that night. We only said goodbye when my alarm clock rand at 5:00 AM! I had to prepare for school!

And that was also how it all started. A day would not pass without loving and thoughtful messages from her. It was only then I had learned to appreciate text messages and become eager and excited everytime my phone beeped, hoping it would be her.

Dara brought out something about me that I never knew I had. I realized I could also be a romantic person... even if it’s just through text messaging.

“Keep me as a friend and I will keep you in my heart. Lock it up and throw away the key so that no one can ever take you away from me...” One day she sent this message to me.

I replied: ‘In life we seldom find a true person and if you ever find one, hold on and never let go... value that person coz it’s life’s gift worth keeping and holding on...”

I never knew why, but her response sent shiver to my spine, “Value the person who have touched your life because you will never know just when they will walk out of your life and never come back again.”

I couldn’t understand what I felt that moment, but one thing I was sure though...  I could not go on a day without a single word from her. I’d become used to having her, eventhough we had not met personally. But truly, she already occupied a space, a large one, in fact in my life.

I texted her back, “Don’t come close if later you’ll just pass by; don’t touch me if later you’ll just let me cry; don’t love if later you’ll just leave me and won’t stay...”

I didn’t know why I sent her that message, but somehow I felt, every word came from my heart. In the short span of time we were sending messages to each other, I knew, I was starting to keep her in my heart.

I called her once. The voice on the other end was like an angel’s. Soft, kind, full of love. Yet there was something in it I couldn’t define. We only talked for a few minutes. Before she hung up, she told me not to call again. According to her, it would be better if we would just text each other.

But the voice kept ringing, not only in my head, but in my heart. I’d long to hear it once more. I tried to call her again, but she never answered the phone. She just kept on sending messages and quotations, which I copied in a little notebook. Hopeless romantic? I didn’t know. All I could say was that all the messages she sent to me were wonderful, they came from the heart and cut through the heart.

“Though we are miles apart, you are always in my heart. I close my eyes and there you are. Even if I’ll see you never, I’ll always be here to care for you, far longer than forever...”