Originally published in Realms of Fantasy, December 2003.
- Honorable mention, The Year's Best Science Fiction: 21st Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois
Donny Chavez lives an unremarkable life in Salt Lake City, where he harbors an unrequited passion for a woman halfway around the world. A chance visit to a peculiar little store sends him off on an epic journey in search of his lovebut journeys have a strange tendency of changing travelers in unexpected ways.