Summary

Readers are whisked back to 1968 with Faye as a new arrival to her dormitory. She is not happy with communal living, and she cannot believe that she is living amongst, “Freaky beatniks, psychedelic revolutionaries who needed to learn to clean up after themselves . . .” (389). She dislikes the people at her school and she dislikes the campus even more, commenting that “Faye had been promised a campus fit for the space age, but what she got was a place where every building’s surface evoked the gravel roads from back home.”(391). Henry sent Faye off to college with a sealed letter, which she is supposed to wait to open until she arrived. Henry’s letter simply says, “Come home / marry me” (392), and we learn that Henry has joined the army. He is stationed in Nebraska doing general training against potential hippie rioters. Meanwhile, in...