Holy cow! That was the bizarrest thing I have ever been through in my life.

An eleven-year-old girl randomly IMs me. She doesn't know me. She hasn't read my diary (which is how she found my s/n). She just decided to IM me.

Her name is Ashley, but sometimes she is Hilary Duff. She doesn't say a lot... But she is only eleven.

I've carried on friendly, half-amused conversations with her for about a week and a half. I do like talking to her.

I had qualms, however, about her being only eleven and randomly IMing people like that. Online often, too. I worry about where her parents are.

Today I was talking to her, or perhaps it was Hilary Duff, and then she asked me for my phone number. Since I never, ever give my phone number or address out to anyone over the Internet, I said no, and I told her why.

"But I'm Hilary Duff," she said.

"You may be Hilary Duff. You may be Ashley. You may be some 65-year-old man who is claiming to be either girl," I said, really glad I was finally getting a chance to talk to her about this, since it doesn't appear that her parents are. "I cannot know, and so I do not trust." (Okay, went a little over the top there... I was getting into a dramatic mood.) Then, I suddenly realized my opportunity and said, "I wouldn't recommend it to Ashely, either; please tell her that for me. I don't want her getting into trouble from IMing someone and giving away that information. She could be killed." (Hm... Maybe that was a little too blunt?)

I stopped there and waited to see what Ashley/Hilary would say. She didn't reply for a long time, and eventually it bothered me, and I asked, "Are you there?" like she has many times when I have failed to reply immediately.

To my great astonishment, the reply I got was: "this is ashley i know you were talking to my cousin hilary duff and i don't want to talk to you anymore so delete me from your list and i am deleting you ok bye"

WHOA!! Wait a second! No, don't do that!!

I frantically typed back, "Oh! But Ashley, why? Can you at least tell me why? Then you can delete me." No reply. "Ashley?" I asked, knowing she hadn't yet signed off, hoping somehow...

"What?" she said.

"Why are you deleting me?" I asked her. At least tell me that!

Her reply hit me almost as hard as the above statement: "becuase you are being mean my cousin ask you for your number and you didn't give it to her and she told me to delete you."

Just because I wouldn't give out my phone number! I was being safe! "I'm sorry that she thinks I'm being mean," I said. "I'm just being safe."

"Well fine i told you so bye," she wrote.

Ah ha... She indeed was only eleven.

She still hadn't signed off. "I want you to be safe, too, Ashley, so don't ever give your phone number or address out over the Internet, okay?"

"I don't have to listen to you," she said.

Wow.

I kept talking.

"Why wouldn't you?" I asked.

"Because you're not my mom you can't tell me what to do," she fired back.

Oh... So she had been talked to about this before... But apparently not very effectively?

I won't relate the rest of the conversation; it went on for quite a while, both of us saying the same kinds of things. Her point was I'm not her mother and I can't tell her what to do; she didn't want to talk to me. My point was that it was okay she didn't want to talk to me; I just cared about her and wanted her to be safe. We went back and forth like that; she must've said "Goodbye, I don't want to talk to you" 4 or 5 times. She even IMed me after I had said what I thought was the final goodbye and clicked out of the window, saying, "This is ashley i don't want to talk to you anymore." To which I replied, "Okay. I'm sorry that I sounded like your mother; I wasn't trying to be mean." To which her response was, "i don't like you anymore and i don't want to talk to you. i thought you were a good friend to me like a sister and then you are being mean. so bye for good."

"Bye, hon," I said, in a last desperate attempt to convey that I cared about her. I just hoped she didn't treat the term of endearment like it was trash! She just said, "Bye."

Wow. Now do you see what I mean? Bizarre! We were doing fine until I brought up that subject... Goodness, I hope God hears twice as well when we double our amount of praying. I wish she didn't think I was being mean... I wish she could tell I care!

Oh, Father, please treat this young girl like she is your daughter... I love You, Jesus. Amen.

Gracious... Now I have to attempt to do Psychology homework under this stress! :P I hope the Lord comes through and speaks to Ashley before she's too far gone... :(

-Stephanie

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