His heart is like an heirloom tomato. Have you ever had an heirloom tomato? They look kind of funny: wrinkled, soft, with many strange-shaped lobes. But when you cut into them, they bleed purple-red, yellow-orange or clean chartreuse, shockingly pretty. There aren�t many seeds; they are dense and full. And when you taste them �-- warm from the sun, unadorned --� all you can think is, I have never had a tomato until this day.

And when the season is over, you can only stare sadly at the shams on the shelves, so waxy and round, and resolve to wait until you can have the real thing.