- Harper is sitting home alone in the dark.
- Joe walks in and asks why she's sitting in the dark.
- She tells him not to turn the light on; she heard someone in the bedroom again.
- He says there's no one there.
- Harper informs him that she's going to go away, and by this she means she's about to go crazy.
- Joe begs her not to and says they should pray.
- Harper turns the light on and then back off again.
- She asks Joe what he prays for.
- "I pray for God to crush me, break me up into little pieces and start all over again," says Joe (2.2.9).
- Harper asks him not to pray for that.
- He talks about this book of Bible stories he had when he was a kid. There was this one picture in the book that Joe still dreams about: a picture of Jacob wrestling the angel. Joe says that when he dreams about it, it's him wrestling the angel, fighting a fight that he can't win.
- Harper says that the most terrible thing is that she loves him more than anybody else in the whole world.
- Joe asks Harper if she's really pregnant.
- She tells him she hasn't had her period, but it might be because she takes too many pills. Harper adds, "Maybe I'll give birth to a pill. That would give a whole new meaning to the word pill popping, huh?" (2.3.14).
- She says he should go to Washington by himself.
- Joe swears he won't leave her.
- Okay, she tells him, but either way she's going to leave him.