I wrote again, and again, on a weekly basis. Jenny became a major correspondent, though she could not answer. Her mother reported on Jenny's reactions to my letters, and interpreted. The blinking of eyes could be a signal, and a kind of game of "twenty questions" could run down what Jenny had in mind. She was so responsive now that it was easy to forget that she remained mostly paralyzed. I learned that she is a vegetarian, like me, and I saw the drawings she had made before the accident, for her story about the flowers and the blind girl. Yes, that was Jenny's story that Jenny Elf told; this is my listing of credit for that. As I write this, they are shopping for a wheelchair, looking forward to the time when Jenny can come home. I joked about how she would zoom down the halls, setting the nurses spinning, and be known as Spinning Jenny. I will, if you wish, make a report in the next Xanth novel Note about Jenny's progress. As for Jenny Elf, we don't yet know about her either. She may remain in Xanth, or she may return to the World of Two Moons. Only the Muses know for sure, and they don't seem too certain. Any of you who haven't visited that world may do so now, to check it out for her: ElfQuest graphic novels are in your bookstores. For now, take my word: they aren't junk, any more than Xanth is.

Meanwhile, back in Mundania: what would I do with that drunk driver, if I ruled the universe? I'd sentence him to three months in a coma, and a possible lifetime crippled. It is past time to start taking action with teeth in it to stop such brutal idiocy. For this was no isolated event; every day, other drunk drivers are doing this to other innocent children. Why should they stop, since punishment is a joke?

So I got into the novel, and Jenny Elf took form as a cross between Jenny of Mundania and a visitor from ElfQuest. I wrote to Richard and Wendy Pini, who record ElfQuest, and they gave me permission to make Jenny an ElfQuest elf rather than a Xanth elf. In fact they also got in touch with the original Jenny, sending her things of their realm. I understand that at one point Jenny, annoyed by the rock music of a boy in the ward, turned up her ElfQuest tape to drown it out. Should we call that spar wars? So it was that an ElfQuest elf came to Xanth, making this novel unique. The rest you know.