Summary

Friedman is now in Nabatieh, the town he had looked at so many times through binoculars from the Pumpkin. The locals are surprised to see a tourist since there is no reason for one to come to their town, but they all welcome him. Friedman walks until he can see the ridge where the Pumpkin used to be in the distance. He reaches the edge of the town and looks up at the site of the old outpost at the top of a ridge, though it is only accessible from the east and will require a separate trip to visit it. For the first time, he can imagine "what it meant to have the horizontal slip of the lookout post peering down at you always like a malevolent eye" (208). He comes to a low stone wall from behind which guerrillas fighters...