1 The somewhat bizarre account set forth in the following few pages—about a man, as it happens, with no special virtues, yet who in the aftermath of an ischemic stroke became (and perhaps verifiably so) the happiest man on earth—cannot properly be called a fable because it is mostly true. Nevertheless, it will not be...

From the pale-lit hallway, Jeff could hear his date bustling inside her apartment for half a minute before he knocked again and she opened the door. She was beautiful, small and slim, with dark hair and straight-across bangs, nicely modest- chested. Her brown eyes called out with long lashes against the deathly pallor of her ash-white...