By six p.m. Alice had booked a flight, a hotel, found her passport, packed, and paid all her bills. Then she started cleaning the refrigerator.

Then she dusted and vacuumed and since she was at it, took down all the curtains and washed and ironed them to hang them back up. She went through the few clothes left hanging in her closet and put them all in a bag for Goodwill.

When she was all done, she went to bed. But she couldn't sleep, wondering about all the Wellingtons and Yarboroughs and Zacharys and everybody in her kingdom of W through Z.