Squirrel Smuggling
- As Flora's mom types her latest novel in the kitchen on her old, banged up typewriter, Flora tries to slip past her.
- Flora's parents are divorced, which she suspects has something to do with the fact that her mom is a romance novelist and her head is always in the clouds.
- Back to reality, Flora's mom asks her what she's doing.
- Nothing, Flora replies. Then her mom tells her to keep it down; she's trying to work here. Flora is breathing way too loud.
- When Flora suggests she could stop breathing altogether, her mom is not amused; instead she instructs her to go wash her hands for dinner.
- Phew. Flora got away with sneaking a squirrel into her house.
- She goes past her mom's favorite lamp of a shepherdess on her way to her room and remembers how her mom ordered the lamp from London.
- Sometimes it feels like her mom cares more about that stupid lamp than Flora, which is why Flora hates it. The lamp's name is Mary Ann, Flora tells Ulysses.
- Her mom even calls the lamp beautiful, something she's never called Flora in all her life.
- She gently holds Ulysses as she climbs the stairs, and thinks about how warm he is for such a little guy.