It’s not often that a person gets a chance to see what Might Have Been if things had gone a little differently. Usually we make a choice and that’s it… the choice is made and we move on. We don’t get to slip through time, step into other iterations, or get a do-over.
Which made it really weird to discover and entire folder of misfiled old emails that had been sent to me via the contact form on this website. The contacts are supposed to get sorted into obvious spam (strings of numbers at fake emails or anything about car insurance) and then to the main contact folder. Sometime in – apparently – 2018 that mailing system fell apart.
I found requests for editing, query letters sent in by friends and clients, questions from grade schoolers, a graduate thesis about Romani representation in literature, and a job offer from a small press that I don’t think survived 2020. They are normal, everyday emails but represent a slice in time. A moment when someone had a question. A day where someone really needed a friend. A chance to change the direction my life was going.
It was an interesting trip through What Could Have Been.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have names to go google to see if those books are available for pre-order yet because they sounded GOOD.