I lost an e-mail yesterday.  Completely.  It came from a man whose last name started with a D and ended, I believe, with an ette.  His name was not my address database, and I generally read e-mails first before adding people to my list.  After all, if they hate me or my books, there’s not much point.

I started reading the message. He was writing to say what an impact reading Second Watch had on his life.  I got that far into the e-mail when I realized that, with a new, day-old computer, my mail program needed to have a font adjustment.  I wanted to use a slightly larger font in order to savor the words, so I stopped in mid-read to make the change.  But then the font change window showed up and wouldn’t go away.  I kept trying to close it, and it kept not closing.  Then, when it finally did close, the half-read e-mail closed as well and disappeared into the ethers.  And I do mean it was gone.  

It wasn’t in my read file or my junk file or in trash, either.  And because all the computers and iPads in the household sync within a matter of minutes, by the time I tried finding the e-mail on another device, it had disappeared from there as well.

So this is an e-mail to which I have not responded and will not be able to respond.  If anyone out there knows this guy, please tell him I’m sorry and ask him to resend.