The Sidewinders is a story that averages some things together: "Pete" is a combination of my Grandad and H. Beam Piper's stock main character. The Plymouth is an average of my Plymouth and the Dodge from "The Blues Brothers. (However, my car will do a lot better than 80 MPH, it's never thrown a rod, and it's got full instrumentation instead of wimpy idiot lights.)"
This story orginally ended with Sonny and Jessie in the doctors office (the shingle didn't appear), and the Sheriff rushing in to tell the nurse that Pete had been found in the desert. That conclusion didn't add much to the story, so I just left it to the reader to put things together at the end.
-coryc