Flora And Ulysses

Ulysses sits awake at night, staring out the window and at Flora as she sleeps. He ponders Flora’s disappointment in her mother. Earlier, Flora warned Ulysses to avoid using the typewriter for a while, as it seemed to deeply affect her mother. However, Ulysses ignores her warning and takes off to the kitchen.

Flora has a dream in which she is sitting on a riverbank with William, and they are holding hands. A neon sign approaches them, and as it gets closer, Flora reads it as “Welcome to Blundermeecen” (179), the city where Dr. Meescham is from. Flora feels perfectly happy as she listens to William talk about the expanding universe, and names the river the Incandesto. She does, however, wonder where Ulysses is.

Ulysses smells something strange in the kitchen and wonders if it is the landlord’s cat, coming to take revenge. However, it turns out to be Flora’s mother, who is smoking and standing behind him in the dark. She approaches and rips Ulysses’s poem out of the typewriter, crumpling it up into a ball. Ulysses wonders if this might be the end for him and thinks about how much he loves everything in the world, even Flora’s mother’s smoke rings.