Eddie writes the little note to Mr. Stiles in Chapter 3 of Buried Onions. At this point in the story, Eddie's starting to think about what he sees as the advantages of a life of crime. No matter how hard he works, no matter how hard he tries to do the right thing, he just never seems to get anywhere. Keeping on the straight and narrow just hasn't helped him at all. Working for Mr. Stiles hasn't been a success because someone—probably Angel—stole Mr. Stiles' pickup truck while Eddie was using it to collect refuse to take to the dump.

Mr. Stiles automatically assumes that Eddie was the one who took the truck. He pins a note to the door of Eddie's apartment, asking him to return it. Eddie wants to set the record straight, so he heads on over to Mr. Stiles' place, only to find he isn't there. So he leaves behind a little envelope containing a note explaining what happened as well as the keys to the pickup truck.