MUSTARD SEED ByTerry L. White         I am fifty-something and have married four times. The first three marriages were normal, run-of-the-mill, mortal partnerships made in hell. The last was a marriage of spirit, and originated from the other side of the world. Getting here involved tests of courage, facing dragons, and faith. You wouldn't believe how it happened.         My other half, John Prince of Melbourne, Australia, came to me on a computer link when I had long since given up on the possibility of love.         I resented and resisted technology for the longest time — I fought tooth and nail to stay in a less complicated time for years. I will look at the story of our meeting and reunion — for it was more a reunion than a meeting in the end — as a miracle for the rest of my life.         I wasn't at all sure about the new computer the day it arrived. Sure, I respected the machine as a tool, since I'd used one at work for the past five years, but who would have thought buying a new computer would make all my dreams come true? I certainly had no idea along those lines. You could call it technophobia. Machines scare the stuffing out of me.         My friend Sandy Linden, a friend from English Lit. 101 at Calvert Community College, said she thought I needed a new computer, but since I hardly ever even touched my old 286 at the time, I wasn't too keen to spend enough money to buy me a set of new wheels on another computer. I had been toying with the idea of a new car for months, but had not made the decision yet since my rusty and dented old Oldsmobile continued to serve me well, if not in style.         Sandy got to me in the nick of time. "We're going to get you a new computer and you are going to love it," she said one morning in February. Then she dragged me to the computer store in Glen Burnie where each machine looked exactly like the next. Sandy talked to salesmen for what seemed like hours, then demanded my credit card.         "I don't think this is such a good idea," I began weakly. My protests went for naught.         "You are out of your mind," I sputtered when she proposed the change — and later, when she spent my life savings! I knew I was defenseless against her arguments. Author TERRY L. WHITE         Terry L. White, author of MYSTICK MOON , was raised in the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania. The eldest of eight children, she dreamed of being a writer and made up stories to amuse herself and her siblings. Of European and Native American descent, she grew up with the family legends of being Abraham Lincoln's relative; of ancestors arriving in the New World as indentured servants, and of abandoned coal mines that burned forever underground on the mountain overlooking her childhood home. Terry's fascination with history, folk art and ways, and New Age philosophy provide her with much of the material she incorporates in her work. She has published hundreds of short stories, articles, poems and songs. Terry is a long-time member of the International Women's Writing Guild and teaches a workshop at their summer conference at Skidmore College each year. Coming soon from Terry L. White will be HANG YOUR HEAD OVER; HELL OR HIGH WATER and THE LAST PRIESTESS. She can be reached at:www.sunweaver.com/stonesoup/ .