This story was an idea that started years ago when my twin boys spent the summer with their grandmother in North Carolina. Listening to their stories and adding my adventures in Chicago, I came up with the story of a young boy raised by a single parent as my brother and I were. With gangs very prominent in our lives, we were shipped off to Michigan. Combining all this, I created my composite of Bobby. As for Gus, he was created to be a catalysis to provide Bobby with a path, and being a goose, he would be the most unusual messenger.