Does AOL e-mail work this way
 

I have a matter where someone who received an e-mail is telling me that the sender "withdrew" it and now he can't open it.

They are both on AOL.

Does AOL work that way? An AOL sender can send an e-mail, then withdraw it later so the recipient can't see it?? Seems odd to me, like once the email is on your computer, how can it be "withdrawn?"

Thanks in advance!

Yes it does seem to work that way.

When I had AOL, you were able to retract a message to another AOL'er.

This is not unlike my office e-mail where I can recall/cancel messages to others on the same server as long as they have not yet read the message.

You can also do it using Microsoft Outlook through an Exchange server.

The key here is to understand that the email is not "on your computer".

You are viewing your email account ON AOL's server.