Flora And Ulysses

Flora’s father, George Buckman, arrives dressed in a suit and hat; he works as an accountant for a law firm. Flora wonders if her father is “the world’s loneliest man” (70), as he seems sad and quiet, which is normal for him. Flora’s mother notices Ulysses under Flora’s pajama top and lectures her about getting diseased. Flora’s father asks about the squirrel but is ignored by both Flora and her mother. Flora thinks about one of the bonus issues in the Incandesto comics titled, “The Criminal Element,” which warns that, “All words at all times, true or false, whispered or shouted, are clues to the workings of the human heart. Listen. You must, if you care to understand anything at all, become a Giant Ear” (72). Flora tells Ulysses to be still and listen, and the two of them sit upstairs as Flora’s parents talk.

Flora overhears her mother tell her father to take Ulysses, put him in a sack, and hit him over the head with a shovel. She believes the squirrel is diseased and wants to get rid of him. Flora’s father refuses, upset at the idea. Flora suddenly realizes William is not the villain of her and Ulysses’s story—her own mother is.