Was the hotel near a hospital? Maybe she just wanted your kidneys. I sometimes think of the people I used to chatter with on MSN messenger in my youth. They, too, were youth, and they're surely adults now. One was in the US, went to some fancy grammar school and it was only years later that I realised her English teacher turned out to be an author of several books I had voraciously read.

Another was in India, sharp witted and incredibly smart. Can't remember how I met these people, but they were my pen pals for a long time. Another one I ended up meeting in person, and having a long distance relationship with - which taught us both a lot, but ended apart. We were both young.

But now we're getting older. You, me, and everyone else that gathers around the flame. We are less interested in that carnal hedonism of the night, and more interested in the intellectually fulfilling encounters we can have, that fire off synapse and vocabulary alike.

You'll find plenty more people like this in and around the flame, we'll keep poking at it with sticks to keep it lit.