Regretting his decision to take a plane, Halleck pulls his seat belt tighter and sits nervously sweating as the vehicle climbs the air. He looks downward out the window at the Potomac river and thinks about a previous plane that had landed right at the edger of the river in fear.  He has stayed in Washington for three days talking with officials in the Commerce Department about exports for his company. Halleck recalls his last evening in the hotel room when he woke up in the middle of the night frantically searching for something in the carpet of his room. He had gotten back up without finding anything and slammed the open window shut. He realized he was sleep walking and fearfully speculates about what he possibly could have been searching for. He brushes the thoughts off and thinks about his sister, Agnes, who he met up with during his stay. Agnes is deeply unhappy with her life, particularly with how her husband has to always travel as a Navy lieutenant and with her lack of a child.  The conversation switches on the topic of Halleck and his family who recently moved out into the country, which is claims was not for safety from war bombs but for other reasons. Agnes is bitter about his optimism about the war. Her husband enters the room and says that the cat has gone missing and Agnes panics.  Halleck focuses back on reality when he hears a man in the seat in front of him make an ignorant remark about how the large number of “Yids” are an indicator of the war. The bluntness of this remark angers Halleck so much but he simmers down and thinks about destruction.  At the airport, he greets his wife who chatters noisily while he contemplates whether or not he should tell her about his disturbing sleeping walking episode. He looks gratefully at his wife for her familiarity and trustful humor.