In 1940s California, Thompson Ditch is notorious for its cold waters in the springtime. One April morning, Aram Garoghlanian, heads to the ditch with his cousin Mourad and a friend named Joe. When they arrive, a storm suddenly begins; the river water was roars, the sky is dark, and the air is cold. The boys still decide to swim since they walked far to get there. They dive into mud up to their elbows which took them much effort to break free from. The storm breaks, and they remain swimming for a few minutes.   Afterward, they eat sandwiches under a tree. The rain only increases, so they decide to leave. They buy bread and a can of beans at a nearby general store. The grocer, Abbott, helps them slice their bread and divide their beans. Amazed at the boys, Abbott asked them where they were from and what education they had. The boys say they’re all Californians and don’t have an education. When Joe says he speaks Portuguese, and Mourad and Aram say they speak Armenian, Abbott says they are indeed educated, because he went to Yale and can’t speak another language. The boys find Abbot’s various expressions, such as “well I’ll be gathered into a pile and burned,” odd and confusing.   Abbott eventually calls the boys “three of the most heroic Californians of this great state.” On their walk back home, the boys wonder if Abbott was crazy. A month later, they try to visit Abbott again, but a younger employee tells the boys he went home to Connecticut. The boys ask the employee if Abbott is crazy, but he says that Abbott seems crazy with how he runs his store and gives away food, but probably isn’t.   As they leave, Joe says the young employee is crazy and doesn’t have an education. The boys begin to repeat Abbott’s expressions. Twenty years later, Aram finds out that Abbott was a poet and ran his store “just for the casual poetry in it instead of the paltry cash.”