Ten days later, the narrator is in the middle of a conversation with a mysterious man. He's not sure what he's talking about, but it's clear that the man knows a lot about science, philosophy, art, music, and the military. The narrator is impressed by the man's knowledge, but he also feels a little weird talking to him. He wonders if the man is just a confidant. The next day, the man tells the narrator that the tulip girl is super-hard to deal with, and that's why he has to stay up all night to talk to her. This is a war, he says, just like the one he wrote his graduation thesis about. He feels like he has been "hollowed out" by the women in his life, and he wonders if this thought might have planted some seeds for what's to come.