Dr. Gallagher's day at the carnival left him fatigued and frustrated: it highlighted his feelings of boredom, despair, and loneliness. With nothing better to spend his time doing than riding a backwards carousel at a carnival run by strange people who stare for just a few seconds too long when making eye contact, Aaron felt worthless. And now, after buying his ticket and some old cotton candy, he had no cash. Luckily, he had plenty left in his bank account from his years of service at the local university before he was terminated when his affair with Janne was discovered. When he left his apartment to go to the ATM in the Stop 'n Shop, he didn't lock the door. "Nothing to steal," he thought frankly. Just as he turned onto Calloway Boulevard, he saw two men pushing a handtruck running out of the Stop 'n Shop. On the handtruck was the ATM. "Great," thought Aaron. His frustration heightened, he turned back to go home. He passed a disheveled young girl who was obviously under the influence of something stronger than cough syrup. She didn't make eye contact as they passed, didn't even seem to notice him. She was mumbling to herself and wandering without direction, every once in a while stopping to stare at her shoelaces, which she left untied each time. Dr. Gallagher enjoyed this lack of interaction, and he was thankful for the feelings of pity and condescension the girl elicited. He was thankful to have an object on which to place his sympathy other than himself. It comforted him to come in contact with someone worse of than himself.

Dr. Gallagher continued wandering about the carnival, feeling out of place in his loafers and pleated slacks. On a whim, he bought a ticket for the carousel from a teenage carny with a stale cigarette hanging lazily from his mouth. The smell of old smoke pervaded the booth, but as the carny handed Dr. Gallagher his already torn and wrinkled ticket, the burning odor got subtly stronger and stronger. Sniffing the air, Dr. Gallagher looked up to see the concession trailer smoking profusely. Two small, plain-looking women ran from the back, screaming. Dr. Gallagher rushed over to them to see if they were alright, but the moment they stepped into the crowd they seemed to disappear and meld with the masses. Confused, Dr. Gallagher took a moment to look for them, but then quickly turned his attentions back to the fire, which had now spread to a shed behind the trailer. An old man was hurriedly gathering up bottles of what appeared to be unlabeled liquor. "Get back, you idiot!" shouted Dr. Gallagher and other members of the crowd. The old man looked up just in time to see a tongue of flame jump out of the window of the trailer and lick at the roof of the shed. The shed caught fire and, like popcorn popping, each bottle of moonshine exploded, one at a time. The old man stood watching with tears in his eyes. Dr. Gallagher, not feeling particularly samaritan, turned in the other direction. "There are plenty of other people to help out," he thought. He wandered towards what he hoped would be an exit.

After his awkward encounter with Paul Neuman, Dr. Gallagher brewed a cup of tea on his hot plate. Earl grey was his favorite, as he found the scent of bergamot incredibly relaxing. He sat on the edge of the bed to drink it because he had not yet invested in any other furniture. He looked out the window and noted with surprise the sudden sunshine that shone bravely through the many smudges and the desiccated insect carcasses that stuck to the screen. It was a beautiful day, and Dr. Gallagher elected to go for a stroll in order to take advantage of this change in weather. Without his galloshes in the first time in months, his feet felt lighter than ever before, like he had been training for a marathon wearing weights on his ankles. Now unhindered, he felt as if he were floating down the street.

His walk did not take him far. Following the smell of stale popcorn, he wandered toward the vacant lot that was now inhabited by a carnival. Standing in front of the entrance, Dr. Gallagher was quite literally herded through the doors by a collection of humpbacked clowns, all on unicycles. Cackling ferociously, the clowns circled behind him and left him no option but to rush through the gates in order to avoid the stampede. Once he was safely inside the gates, one clown dismounted his unicycle, rushed over to a woman and grinned hungrily in her face. His confrontation elicited a scream from the woman, at which he calmly hopped onto his unicycle and rode off. Dr. Gallagher recognized the woman as Shaunicia Santiago, one of his neighbors at Watershed Heights who was known to stumble noisily through the apartment after a night of partying. He moved his attention to the strange sights around him, specifically to the a kissing booth with the most unattractive woman he had ever seen. The overwhelming majority of her face was covered with two fat, wrinkled lips. Flakes of dried skin hung from the leathery caterpillars on her face, and overlooking them was a huge mole that seemed to be staring him down. Dr. Gallagher quickly turned around so as to avoid making eye contact with the woman, or more specifically, with the woman's mole.