In this short scene, the protagonist addresses the townspeople of Eden, a small town in the state of North Dakota. He delivers a long speech in which he laments the fact that his town is surrounded by "red mud" . He laments that his mother told him that when people mean things, he should "do a nice thing" , but that sometimes doing a "nice thing" leads to a "bad thing." The protagonist then goes on to criticize the townspeople for accepting him as a second-class citizen. He wonders if the drug dealer at the drugstore is the same man who used a crosshair on his hand to make the word "retard" so long ago. The protagonist wonders whether the white light at the post office wants to know the identity of the woman in the red dress.