B was for Beatrice until the bigwigs showed up. Came straight from the beauty shop in their bouffants, in their barrettes. “Like a burglary,” the humans would later say. “Like coiffed heads of broccoli,” joked Walter B. “Believe you me,” said Beatrice, “this is serious.” “Shouldn’t have let them in,” said Walter B. Said Walter. “Too late to set up the booby trap,” said Beatrice. “And besides, they bustled up the balcony so beautifully I thought at first they were the birds.”

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