Actually, said the Outside Girl, he wanted to get out of there. He wanted to come with me.

Underneath the covers in my elfin cave my pee swelled up and pressed and pressed. All the grown-ups acted like I was on one team or another team but none of them knew I was only on my own team. I was living by my wits. I was questing. I just kept on flexing.

No matter what the Outside Girl said about me wanting to go over, when I heard her talk about the shit bucket and the snakes and the no dad, I got the Velvet Piglet feeling really bad and I started thinking maybe I’d had about as much of a break as I needed and I was really ready to go back to my women. Then I had to pee so bad I knew I would not be able to make it to the bathroom so I threw the covers off of me and I saw a plant in a pot in the corner of the room and really soft, flat-footed and silent as Cutter and Skywise, I aimed my privates in there and watered that plant, all the while looking over my shoulder and I heard the voices in the kitchen stop. I got my pants up just in time and I heard Grandma Barlow call to me, My son, come on in. So skilled was I that they never knew I peed in that plant even later when I kept on peeing on it until it yellowed and then it died.