


To Julia Tiell: I think I met you at a conference in Phoenix or Tucson. I met someone from Ajo who asked me for a copy of my talk. I told the audience about how Harold and I rescued an illegal immigrant who was dying of thirst, took him to Ajo and left him with a bottle of water, a big chocolate bar and twenty dollars. This was while I was doing research for The House of the Scorpion. At that time we had no idea what to do with the man. We couldn't abandon him. Later, we were told to call the Border Patrol, but at that time we didn't have a cell phone. And it was Christmas. And you don't turn people in over Christmas. Unfortunately, the attorney general for Arizona was in the audience. One of the police officers turned to him and said, "You didn't hear that, sir."
To Rya: Fani and Benito both died at El Patron's funeral. Her father, Glass Eye Dabengwa, is an African drug lord who appears in the sequel. He's 99 years old and lives by harvesting clones, but parts of him are machinery. He's called Glass Eye because he never blinks. He's totally scary.