: Yes. I was pretty sure of that. I was traveling from east to west before, but now I’m reversing. Like Lewis and Clark. You remember them?
EMMA
: Who?
WELCH
: The Department keeps me on my toes.
EMMA
: Department?
WELCH
: Yes. The Mighty Mississippi! You can tell as soon as you cross it that you’re in a different domain, a new realm. The Heartland—isn’t that what you call it up here? The “Heartland”?
EMMA
: Dairyland, actually. “America’s Dairyland.” It’s on the license plates.
WELCH
: I noticed that.
EMMA
: But it’s all moved away.
WELCH
: What has?
EMMA
: The milk. The cows.
WELCH
: But you’ve got cows down there.
EMMA
: There’s just a few of us left.
WELCH
: Who?
EMMA
: Dairy—dairy people.
WELCH
: Well, where’d they go? Where’d they move away to?
EMMA
: Out west. Agribusiness. Big corporations.
WELCH
: Fascinating.
EMMA
: Look, if you’d like me to call my husband, I can just ring the bell and he’ll come up.
(She moves toward door.)
WELCH
: No! No need for that. I wouldn’t want to take him away from his chores. Good to see a man carrying out simple, traditional farm chores these days, without complaint. Almost as a sense of duty. It would certainly cut down on our dependency for foreigners, wouldn’t it?
EMMA
: What?
WELCH
: More men like your husband. Willing and able.
EMMA
: What exactly do you want? What are you doing here?
WELCH
: We’re on a kind of a survey of sorts.
EMMA
: We?
WELCH