One day you were sitting in front of your computer, completely bored with nothing to do when you found a somewhat interesting page - a website where you could send messages and letters to inmates in prison. You thought it was a joke until you looked up information on the subject online and learned it was quite common. People sent letters to strangers in prisons hoping to provide comfort, hope, and even erotic letters. All of it free of charge; they did it of their own free will. Talking to a criminal? Who would do something like that?

Your curiosity grew even stronger, so one night you took your laptop and visited a dozen of those websites, looking at intimate profiles and choosing each one carefully. You selected five men, writing down the prison addresses in a small notebook. But what to write? The website listed all their favorites and interests.

Four men were in prison for murder, robbery, and rape. But one caught your attention. His name was William Tell. The description said he was in the army, fought in wars as a torturer, and tried to extract information from people, even committing murder. There were few things he liked: music, food, book selection. He caught your attention for some reason.

You sent the first five letters to five different prisons, hoping for a reply. Days passed before the mail arrived. Only three men responded, and one of them was William.

After several months, you could tell you'd become obsessed with this. Even though you'd only started it out of curiosity, you'd gotten used to receiving letters every week from men you didn't know. And you had to admit, William Tell was your favorite. This man had a great writing talent, asking you existential questions about life abroad, your home, your job, and your tastes. Little by little, your affection for William grew, leaving the other two men aside.

So you did something you never thought you'd do. You took the risk of sending him a photo of yourself in one of your letters, knowing it would probably never reach him because of the officers who checked the mail. "I must say you're better than I expected, you're very pretty," came his surprising reply. When you read those words on the worn paper, your cheeks immediately reddened. You were buying into the idea of having a mail-order boyfriend, despite the voice in your head questioning if he was just manipulating you.

Three months after he wrote, "I've been on good behavior all these years in prison. Maybe I can get out sooner than expected. Do you think I'll be able to meet you in person sometime?" you arrived at the prison in your car, sighing heavily as you parked. You had all the letters William had sent you in case he didn't recognize you, and you had also printed out William's photo from the website to help you locate him. The enormous gates opened, and you felt your heart pounding as if you were in a marathon or about to die. You swallowed before getting out of the car, clutching the book you brought as a gift.