A Moment of Silence, Please

Update:   I FOUND A COPY!  I forgot to check my laptop, which is what I originally wrote it on.  It’s missing a couple pages, but that’s a lot better than the whole thing.  It’s a Christmas miracle! 

I have, apparently, committed an act of man-slaughter or story-slaughter, unintentionally.  It could be said that I have ignored or pushed away my creative bug, possibly committing a great sin to inspiration or maybe it was bad creative karma or maybe it was just a stupid mistake, but something very grave has happened.  I think right now I am trying to make light of it, but it’s most likely just a state of shock.  This is one of the worst things that’s ever happened to me.

Last summer (not this past, but the one previous) while at the Colony, I was working on a manuscript about God, Tumbleweed and I.  I haven’t really worked on it since–well, not a lot.  But I haven’t stopped thinking about it.  Lastnight, was the night to pick it up again.  At some point, I deleted it–accidentally.  I have checked the backup disks that I have and it’s not there either.  I am almost positive no one else would have a copy.  I read it once, last January, and I gave a copy to someone who asked for it in the audience.  Other than that person, I don’t think another copy exists (if that copy still exists).

I am sick to my stomach.  There is no way to recreate that work, obviously.  I am at a loss… I might be going fetal for a while…