[Tutor] write problem

[Ron]

Hereis the problem.

Python 2.2 (#28, Dec 21 2001, 12:21:22) [MSC 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
IDLE 0.8 -- press F1 for help
>>> data = open("ron.txt","a")
>>> data.write("help me!")
>>> data.read()
'\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00

and it continues with the x00s.
What am I doing wrong. I had a file with one line of text saved, and
this is what I ended up with. Maybe it doesn't like my name<g>

Ron