"Popguns & Pacemakers" — Patriotism, in a small town, and other tales of The Great American Westerly Midwest

Where we find that Robert S. Thompson has sat on his bench on main street and written a letter to the editor talking about war and about how a local boy has died for mostly nothing. We find Nona The Waitress musing about the lack of democracy in the good ol' USA, and Tommy on his bike remembering his brother, who they say died for freedom, but Tommy doesn't believe that, not at all.Two runners remain friends after college even though they live on opposite coasts. Their second summer out of school finds them on vacation in Idaho, where they admit to one another that their jobs are not as grand as they had once envisioned. While on vacation, they meet a strange character who holds the power to change their lives forever.