From: 1-763-XXX-XXXX
Date: 7/29/05 4:00 am

Hey baby its me emma. Ive been trying to get ahold of u. My phone is dead. Please call me on this phone if u are up. Please. I love you.

This morning, I found the above SMS message waiting on my phone.

I have no idea who Emma is, or why she is so desperate to reach her lover at 4:00 AM, or what role a dead phone might be playing in this apparent tragedy of errors.

But this tiny bit of electric flotsam washed onto my Treo's shore can't help but intrigue.

Who is Emma, and who is the message intended for?

Do I detect a hint of desperation? Perhaps this message (had it been delivered properly) would not have been entirely welcome.

Perhaps the misdelivery delayed some other catastrophe, triggered when Mary or Anne or Jennifer happened to glance at the phone at the wrong moment.

Or possibly the desperation is borne of more mundane causes: end of an overnight shift, the car won't start, and poor Emma is locked outside.

Yesterday I had never heard of Emma. Today, I can't stop myself from wondering what slice of the human condition may be hers.