It seemed the issue would never get in. Jackie kept calling from Spilman’s with bad news. The truck would leave Sacramento at 2:00. The truck would leave Sacramento at 5:30. The truck would leave Sacramento even later than that… Much of the day was spent waiting in paralyzing boredom. I divided my time between writing, filing photos and reading, left to pick up Tim at his office and bring him in at about 5:30. Other guests began to arrive: Joan Gaustad, Russ and an older pal of his, Dave Nee and his boyfriend, Carolyn, Dave Clarke, Shelly’s Paul, Trevin’s good-looking younger brother… We had nothing to do but sit around talking. The issue did not actually arrive until we were all digging into the enchiladas Shelly had made.

That was unusually late. Most of the time the issue got there in the afternoon, well before guests began to arrive. I suspect it was delayed because we’d had to do so many last-minute changes in the wake of Heinlein’s death.

I never met “Jackie at Spilman’s.” She was just the name invoked by Shelly or Charlie on collating day when estimating the arrival of all the bagged issues.