"Away from, Norma?" Muffy asked. "I'm hardly running away from anything! Au contraire, I am running TO something! Something I am sure will be wonderful! I have a strange feeling about what I am destined to find in..whatever the name of that place is. Ottumwa. I feel that my family will be...possibly some sort of nobility. Aristocrats, know what I mean? Rich and all?
"Yes, Norma, I am running to MY ROOTS! Does the word 'roots' mean anything to you, Norma? Because it means a great deal to me! Perhaps you, who have nothing better to do with your miserable life than cruise around this block over and over and over, round and round, day after day, waiting for me, or some acquaintance of mine, to appear in hopes we will give you a hefty tip, wouldn't understand about ROOTS, and FAMILY, and FANCY, GENTEEL-TYPE PEOPLE, and concepts like THAT!"
Muffy threw Shorty into the trunk of the taxi, slammed the trunk shut,(cutting off a 'yip' before it had yet been heard, but not before it had been uttered) and slid both her buttocks, first the lovely left cheek, then the lovely right, which was very nearly symmetrical with the left, gracefully onto the passenger seat, delicately crossing her slender ankles.
"To the airport, you deracinated plebe!" she fairly shouted at the back of Muffy's bowed grey head.
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