"Pandora" is actually the thinly disguised author-character from Ursula K. Le Guin’s experimental SF epic Always Coming Home ! How "Pandora" got into this story I’m not really sure, I guess it’s my mistake, but I’ll fight any man who claims that Always Coming Home isn’t "real SF"! Even if it’s not really, exactly, a "book." For one thing, Always Coming Home has got an audiotape that comes with it, which puts a pretty severe dent in its narrative closure. I’d have liked to supply an audiotape with this story—maybe some Japanese pop music, or John Cage—but I was too cheap. Instead, I’ll just play the Always Coming Home tape here in my office. I ordered it from a P.O. box in Oregon. It’s got weird mellow chanting in made-up languages.