This story is largely true (although my real brother is named William and is nothing like the Larry in the story). When I reached out to contact Varda, it was partly idle curiosity. But also because she represented Dean’s to me where I first fell in love. Reconnecting with her and revisiting Dean’s (although in real life I went alone) had their own rewards, but reconnecting to those memories and feelings were not among them. It was only when I wrote the story that I rediscovered that lost world and time.
