The author lives along the California coast a couple of hours south of Los Angeles, where he works at a local library and sings and plays guitar at a nearby church. He credits two of our earlier stories—“Whinin’ Boy Blues” by Allen Steele (February 1994) and “The Day of Their Coming” by G. David Nordley (March 1994)—with providing inspiration for the following tale. Credit is also awarded to “a plastic M&M dispenser my brother gave me, and, of course, the eggplant, a fruit that is one of the wonders of the world.”