Summary

King describes how he told a friend of his the idea he had about the story “Mister Yummy.” This friend warned King that because he did not have AIDS and was a straight man, he did not have anything to say about those topics. King did not agree because the statement suggested there was a limit to the imagination and suggested that humans do not have the ability to change. King argues that change requires hard work as well as imagination. He also defends himself by saying he did not want to write about AIDS or being gay, in his story, he wanted to write about the power of the human sex drive.

In Chapter 1 of “Mister Yummy,” Ollie Franklin, a resident of Lakeview Assisted Living Center, asked his friend and fellow resident, Dave Calhoun, to join him in the garden. Ollie said...