The chapter opens in the bleak homestead, where the narrator laments that he is surrounded by four walls of reality. The only place where he can escape reality is "my fortress of solitude" . He wants to know what the contents of the box are, but he is afraid that his family will be disappointed if they find out. He asks his friend, finney, to take a picture of him and give it to him for only 299 dollars. He tells his friend that he cannot believe that he agreed to this deal, and that he will have to pass it on to the flying Dutchman. The family, he says, is like a "soft serve" that can never cool his indignity. He wonders if he will spend an eternity with them, and wonders if they are only there to annoy him to death. He says that he has spent two hours standing in front of the house, and he wonders why he did not show up for his meeting with his friend. He spends more time thinking about the box than he does looking through it. He realizes that he needs to find out why his friend did not come to meet him that night.