This war claims so many victims...

The man accepted this open-ended question in terms of food only, muttering an order of scrambled eggs and grits and requesting water, with lemon. He ate everything on his plate, continuing his private conversation all the while. He paid his bill, left no tip, and slipped back behind night’s curtain.

A woman walked in 20 minutes later, carrying leaflets. Her name was Sheryl Futrell and she had been searching for weeks for her disoriented son, an Iraq-Afghanistan war veteran named Gary Chronister. Here is his photograph, she said — and you know the rest.