I MADE A point of telling people in LA that I’d come from somewhere farther than Santa Clarita: Tempe or Little Rock. When they asked questions, I said inscrutable things like, ‘The past is the past.’In response, they’d try to ingratiate themselves: ‘I guess I’m lucky,’ they would say. ‘I was born here.’ 

I lied often when I first arrived. In the job interview for the tour company, I told the manager that I knew the area well. He was an East Coaster with HEATHEN crossing his neck in gothic script. His name was Jake.