- When the narrator was a bit younger, he got drunk one night and called up his old buddy, Bernard V. O'Hare, to ask if he could visit.
- This Bernard V. O'Hare and the narrator were captured together during the war.
- O'Hare says sure, the narrator can visit—but he doesn't remember much about the whole war thing.
- The narrator tells O'Hare what the climax of the book should be: the execution of Edgar Derby. After all the people are killed in Dresden, after the war ends, the climax of the book should be the shooting of an American soldier by firing squad for stealing a teapot from the ruins of the city. Oh the irony, says the narrator.
- O'Hare seems uncomfortable.