I wrote this story in response to a derogatory comment someone made about Arizona, that there was no history here. We do have history, just not as much as places with wetter climes and higher population densities. It got me thinking about what advantage that could have. The other inspiration for this story was something I read about a culture that classified people as belonging to three different types: the living, the dead, and the not-yet-born. Most of the time, we only talk about the first two.