I played around with node.js and socket.io a bit more and got some client-server communication going.
Then I opened a socket from the node.js server to Brads game and sent :
gameSocket.write("echo\r\n\r\n"); //I got the end of line from some website. Not sure what to send yet.
I got no response that I could tell from the node.js side, but Brads game saw the connection...
Clients: 1
[2] type: 21536
[4] /: DUDE THIS IS ONE WEIRD DELIMITER
Client 0 Disconnected
So I can now send arbitrary text and JS objects back and forth from the browser client and the node server and I can send weird delimiters to Brads game!!