County narrator

The anonymous first-person narrator has been in jail for two months and suffers from opioid addiction, as he mentioned withdrawal symptoms (sweating and tremors) and methadone, a drug that alleviates such effects. Although it seems he is in jail for a crime associated with drug use, he never explicitly confirms so but says he will be "locked up for a long time" (4), indicating a more severe crime. This is his first time in jail.

The narrator is not outgoing, describing himself as a poor conversationalist and expressing solace from his spot in the dark corner of the cell during withdrawal episodes. However, he starves for human connection, grasping at it through conversation, television, a nurse's touch, and a fellow inmate's tattoo.

This narrator also extremely reacts to the idea of hope, as depicted by contestants on The Price is Right and the rumor the jail was built...