The Highway Diner — Mark Paul Smith

Twenty-year-old Murray is an aspiring artist who is helping her mother run a struggling truck plaza in Indiana when she falls in love with Ben, a truck driver on hiatus from Stanford University. A shooting at the plaza draws national attention as drivers rally to support and reopen the truck stop. Murray and Ben galvanize Trucker Nation into a campaign to stop the hatred poisoning the country. They encourage people to embrace the diversity that keeps the supply chain moving.The victim of the shooting is the childhood buddy of a psychologically damaged war veteran who hates the federal government and the Teamsters' Union. He calls himself The Commander and sees the Highway Diner as profiting from the death of his friend. He conducts a campaign of intimidation from his heavily armed compound in rural Michigan. When death threats, billboard campaigns, and kidnapping fail, he bombs the plaza. Ben is killed.Murray's grief and trauma overwhelm her once The Commander is finally defeated. She enrolls in art school at The University of Chicago, but all she can do is cry when she stands in front of her easel. With the help of friends, Murray realizes that being able to paint again is not the final goal of grieving. It is the creative process that helps her wade through the sadness.