Back in 2008, when the Bakersfield Californian had online reader blogs at their website, I started to become friends with a fellow blogger lady named Nancy. We emailed back and forth for quite some time, and started to become friends. The friendship didn’t last, as our personalities proved to be incompatible, so we stopped emailing one another and never exchanged emails again.
Years later, in 2014, I woke up to the news that Nancy had been killed in an automobile accident. A Kern Sheriff’s deputy flew through an intersection at high speed, no lights, no siren, and smashed right into Nancy as she was driving. She had been to a Dodger’s game earlier that evening.
A few minutes later, after all these years, an email unexpectedly arrived in my inbox.
It was from Nancy.
It read, “Heading home now.”
Back in the day, an email would occasionally get delayed in transit at a particular server, and would continue on its way some time in the future. She sent it as she was leaving the Dodger Game. It got stuck in transit, and arrived only after I had read the news.
I received an email … from the other side.