Stealing the cowboy hat for her daddy was probably her most difficult heist yet. It wasn't an item that you could easily pocket at a drug store. Instead she had to wait until the right moment when no one was looking and that she did. But as she swiped the hat and turned to leave, the two ladies working at the counter quickly caught on to her and caught up to her and hauled her back to the counter, threatening to call the sheriff.
Lulu began to cry, not because she was guilty though, because all of a sudden she got into character. She was no longer Tallulah Walker of Thorton, Louisiana, daughter of Vivi and Shephard Walker, sister of Siddalee, Baylor and Shephard Jr., she was now Corina Axel. She has no parents, they died in a car crash. (A CAR CRASH?!) And she was trying to get her brother, Bucky a hat because he works in the fields to earn their keep and raise her.
The ladies of the store calm Corina down. Let her have an Orange Crush and eventually, she gets to keep the cowboy hat that she was going to steal. And she leaves, and gets way with it.
I have no idea how Lulu could even stomach stealing things, or why she would want to. Her family is pretty well off, they aren't poor, but they aren't filthy rich either. Her Mama and Daddy pay her an allowance, but she insists to steal to get what she-- well she doesn't necessarily want the stuff and she doesn't need it. It's all a game to her really. Just to see what she can get away with. And she does get away with it.
I did some Wikipedia background reading earlier and it said something like "People insist that what Wells writes is autobiographic." And I wonder for what, for Little Altars Everywhere or The Divine Secrets. Or is it all in some sense like that, or not at all. It was just very unnerving to listen into a little girls thoughts and the ability to live with what she was doing. Though, in the end she decided she was done with being Gimmee Gimmee Gimmee.
3/4 for 3/3/10--please see note from 2/17--did you finish reading the Lewis Caroll book?
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