On the first day of the con, I bought a bunch of Star Trek paperbacks in the vendors' room for 25 cents each--way underpriced. Most of the other booths price this stuff at antique-dealer levels. I got them from a Grateful Dead-type mom-and-pop, complete with golden-haired grown daughter in a tie-dye T-shirt.
We chatted a bit, and the told me they've been hawking sci-fi oddments since 1983. The man said that the people at Star Trek cons were "the best people in the world."
I said I could tell that already; that I'd noticed especially that people really speak from their hearts.
When I went back today, I asked how much the above Glow in the Dark Kirk and Spock was.
The father said, "You can't buy it," and I thought he meant it had been promised to someone else.
But no.
"For you, it's a gift," he said. "You bought a bunch of things from us, so this is free."
And guess what?
When I turned out the light tonight, I discovered that this firefly radiates happiness that is magically retroactive.
Its glow is entering my childhood and subverting my unhappy memories.
