I spent a few days in Lancaster before heading back to Columbus. I had a client out there that needed tending to, but I resolved that issue in an afternoon. I merely felt the urge to linger for a while.

I called Bev from my motel room to let her know that I was going to be longer than expected. "This guy, he thinks we're not giving him enough attention, " I said.

"Maybe he wants more attention than he deserves, " Bev suggested.

"He's one of our oldest clients, " I said. "He's afraid of the competition. You know, the big-box home stores and that sort of thing."

"That's not something you can help him with, is it?" Bev said.

"It's about becoming more efficient, " I said. "Using your data right. He wants us to develop a whole new approach before I go."

Bev didn't say anything for a while. "It's raining here, " she then told me.

"It was raining here, " I said.

"But I mean it's been raining hard all day, " she told me.

"It's strange when that happens, " I said. "We have a bit of rain, like I said. But that was it."

"Gavin won't go outside anymore, " Bev said. "That's what he told me. He said, 'I'm not going outside ever again.' He doesn't trust it, I think?"

"Trust what?" I said.

"You know, it's fine one day, it's raining the next, " Bev said. "He wants to be able to understand what's going on."

"Show him the weather forecast on the computer, " I told him.

"I tried that, " Bev said. "He's still sceptical. He thinks it's all guesswork, I think."

"Tell him it's not, " I told her. "Tell him they have highly-paid professionals who look into this stuff."

"Well, he's in his room and he's not changing his mind today, " Bev said.

"Something we can sort out together, then, " I said.

"When you get back, " Bev said.

"When I get back, " I said.

I headed out to a bar on Main Street after talking with Bev. The motel where I was staying was a dreary place on the outskirts of town, with the traffic off the highway clearly audible. I stopped by a place where they had different ball games on every television and figured it wouldn't be too hard to distract myself there.

The big news that I had missed that day was that John Kasich had been in town, and had actually stopped by the very bar that I was in. The bartender told me the whole story as I nursed a drink and kept an eye on the Reds game. "Some people say Kasich has it locked up, but others say it's the other way around, " the bartender told me.

"You won't know until closer to election time, " I said. "People can't make up their minds about anything right now."

"Tell me about it, " the bartender said. "I put on the news and all I hear about is this mosque in New York. They have one person in favor of it, and the other against it. It's the same setup on every channel."

"It doesn't make a difference what they're talking about, " I said. "They pick an issue and get their people to argue about it."

"There's a mosque up on Marletta, they tell me, " the bartender said. "One of my regular patrons. He's getting all riled up watching these people debate and he tells me about this mosque in Marletta and how you don't know what they people in there are talking about. You know how some people are. But I didn't even know. I can't even remember the last time I was on Marletta, come to think about it."

"I'm not from here, " I told him. "But I come by often."

"You're from Columbus, I take it, " the bartender said.

"I've lived there for about five years, " I said. "Before that, Chicago."

"There's not much to Lancaster, " the bartender said. "But I'm making a living. What can you do?"

"Everything's the same everywhere, " I said. "Don't let anyone tell you different. I meet these business travellers from time to time, you know. They go on and on about the places they've been. But I've been to plenty of places myself, and I can tell you that they're all the same. You take this bar and drop it in Columbus, or Chicago, or wherever, and you wouldn't even know that you'd moved."

The bartender grabbed my empty mug and handed me a full one. "That's an interesting perspective, " he said.

"So what did Kasich have to say?" I asked the bartender.

"The usual sort of stuff, " the bartender told me. "Bringing work back to Ohio. As if we haven't heard that before."

"But his plan is guaranteed to work, I'll bet, " I said.

"Of course, " the bartender said. And then he leaned in a bit closer, and spoke quieter. "But there's something else he told me, " he then said. "Something he wanted me to keep to myself. But I feel like sharing the news with one other person."

"I won't tell anyone, " I said.

"Well, you know, this Kasich has written a few books, " the bartender said. "Did you know that?"

"Maybe I heard that somewhere, " I said.

"You know, the usual stuff about what's wrong with the country and what we should do to fix it, " the bartender said. "I haven't read any of them, but he gave me a general description of each. But anyway, he asks me if I can keep a secret. So of course I tell him that I can. And then he says he's working on another book."

"That doesn't sound like such a big deal, " I said. "Probably he was trying to make you feel special so you'd vote for him."

"No, but the thing is that this book's going to be different, " the bartender said. "That's what he told me. He said it's going to be a novel. A big, epic novel about America."

"I guess that is a bit odd, " I said.

"He said it's going to be a big story where he retells the history of America the way it should have gone, or something like that, " the bartender went on. "You know, he's going to twist things around so that things go the way he thinks they should have gone."

"He's doing this while he's campaigning?" I said.

"He said he's going to unveil it when he's in office, " the bartender said. "And he might make an announcement when he's campaigning, depending on how things go. But he didn't want me to tell anybody, you understand."

"I promise, " I said. "I won't say a word about it."

"It's crazy, though, right?" the bartender said. "He said that he wants it to be over one thousand pages. He said he wants people to read it closely and think about it. He said he doesn't want people to rush through it. It's something that's supposed to change the way you look at the world. Those were his exact words. 'It will change the way you look at the world, if you read it right, ' he told me."

"Some of these people think a lot of themselves, " I said.

"I guess so, " the bartender said. "But it will be interesting to hear what people say if it comes out."

"Something else to argue about, " I said.

"I suppose, " the bartender said.

I finished my second drink and headed out for a walk. I thought of Bev and Gavin in our fragile little house, and how a sudden gust of wind might just blow the whole thing away. Everything seemed disturbingly fragile to me at that point. I had lost my sense of direction. I did not know how to get back to the motel.