E-mail is great, but there can be problems.

Mailbox messages

It was Friday afternoon, time for the computer club. Leroy opened his mailbox. There was a message for him from Byteboy. "Hi, Gunno. I'm coming to your terrible city tomorrow. My aunt lives in Birmingham now and I'm going to visit her. Can we meet for an hour or two? My train is going to arrive at 11.00."

Leroy wrote an answer. "Are you sure it isn't too dangerous for you? Meet me outside the café at the station."

Leroy told his parents about Byteboy. But they weren't happy.

"You don't know him," said Mrs Gunn.

"And we don't know his name," Mr Gunn said. "It can't be Byteboy."

"Of course not," said Leroy. "But that's OK. People often use a different name in computer messages. Our teacher always says we mustn't give other people our name or address."

"But we don't know who Byteboy is," said Mr Gunn. "I'm coming with you."

So on Saturday morning Mr Gunn and Leroy left the house together. Mr Gunn went into the Newsbox newspaper shop and bought a newspaper. Leroy waited outside. A boy came out of the shop with a computer magazine and went into the house next to the shop. "He's lucky," thought Leroy. "I never have enough money for that magazine."

Mr Gunn and Leroy went to the station café and waited. Then Leroy saw a boy. He shouted to him. "Hey, I'm here!" They said hallo and then the boys and Mr Gunn left the station.

At the department store where he worked, Mr Gunn said goodbye to the boys.

"There's a super computer shop in Corporation Street. Let's go there," said Leroy. "After that we can buy a hamburger. I'm hungry."

"A hamburger?" the other boy said. "But you and I are vegetarians - your computer name is Veggie."

"No, I'm Gunno. Aren't you Byteboy?"

"No, I'm Megamike, Mike Buck, from Ashby. But I have Veggie's phone number. I can phone him."

"And I must go back to the station," said Leroy. "Byteboy must be there."

Then he wrote something on a card.

"This is my e-mail address. Perhaps we can meet again. Bye."

Leroy went to the station. But nobody was waiting there.

On Monday there were two messages in Leroy's mailbox. The first message was from Byteboy.

The second message was from Megamike.