They were a strange lot, the residents at Mrs. Mumble's boardinghouse - her name wasn't "mumble," but that was what people did when they tried to pronounce it - and you might call the place a miniature United Nations. There was Yusef Afifi, Afghan, an importer; Fritz Holtzer, advertising model; Johnny Jones, Welshman; Oonalak, an Alaskan Eskimo; Chien Wang, a refugee from Hong Kong; a beautiful Ethiopian woman, whom they all called Sheba; an equally lovely girl, Eufemia Rosario, who claimed to be a full-blooded Mohawk Indian, and Irish Dan Gorman, science fiction and fantasy illustrator and artist. They all got along in reasonable harmony until the night of Honey Tucci's party. The Tucci girl knew all of them, and they were all invited. Dan Gorman knew that la Tucci expected something kookie from him because of his occupation, so he stopped in at a place called Lew's Joke Shop to see if he could find something unusual to bring. A tall, scrawny kid behind the counter asked, "Help you?" and then was sent ...