The next day, Mary was going out for a walk with SF, since she was feeling a little stiff from sleeping in the cramped crawlspace. SF thought it was a beautiful day to be going out for a nice stroll, but Mary wasn't quite sure, because the weather was the same as it always had been in the wasteland. The sky was still very dull and cloudy, and the sun didn't seem to be anywhere in sight, but SF didn't really seem to care. Before Mary knew it, her father walked off in a random direction, leaving his daughter behind. Mary had no idea where he was going, so she decided to follow him. He went into a little area in the wasteland that looked like some kind of forest. Mary was surprised to find out that the dreary place actually had some trees and plants. She noticed that her father was interested in a stinging nettle plant, and he bent down to pick it up by hand. This was not a good idea, because nettles cause rashes when they are touched by bare hands. Mary had never seen nettles before, and she didn't seem to know what those plants were called, but she could see that SF's hands were developing blisters as he rubbed the plant. That didn't seem good at all. However, SF didn't seem to be bothered, as he was enjoying the pleasure of rubbing the plant with his hands.

Deciding not to ask any questions, Mary snuck off to let SF do his weird thing. Suddenly, she bumped into Harry, the man from the BBQ restaurant.

"Oh, hey, kid!" said Harry. "I did not see you there."

"Harry? What are you doing here?" asked Mary. "Aren't you supposed to be working at that restaurant or something?"

"Oh no," said Harry. "I finished my shift a little earlier than usual, so now I'm taking a nice stroll with my wife and kids. We decided to visit this wasteland because we heard there was a little forest, so we just had to check it out. There aren't a lot of woodland areas on the hill, but I sure hope the forest here is just as good as any other forest."

"Um…I don't think that's a good idea," said Mary.

"Why not?" asked Harry.

"You see, my father is in the forest at the moment," said Mary. "And he's been rubbing some strange plant on his hands for some reason. You should probably wait until he leaves, because you do not want to go anywhere near him. Trust me."

"Wait a minute, are ya talkin' about that tall, green mutant guy?" asked Harry.

"Um…yes," said Mary. "He's my father."

"Well, guess that explains your green complexion," said Harry. "But at least you're not plannin' to harvest people's organs or steal their belongings."

"Harvest organs? Steal belongings? Why would I ever do that?" asked Mary.

"Oh, it's a long story," said Harry. "When we lived here on this flat land instead of on the hill, we were all living peacefully, but then this horrible creature came along and ruined everything. We don't know what kind of creature he is, or where he even came from, but when we first saw the pictures of him, we knew our town was in trouble. You wouldn't believe what happened whenever he was present. Not only did he clobber people on the head and drag them back into his shack, but he also stole their belongings and broke into our shops to steal things. Lordy, I'm just glad we were able to move to the hill."

"I'm sure you are," said Mary. Deep down, she couldn't help but feel a little jealous. The people living in the town up the hill seemed to be living a much better life than she was. They didn't live in run-down shacks, or had rusty utensils, or slept under their floors. Oh, if only she could live with them instead of her wretched father. Alas, she had to stay with him, for if she ran away to live on the hill, he would sooner or later find out, track her down, and rip her face off with his claws and tear her limb from limb. She shuddered at the mere thought of it. After all, she had just been created and was still learning about the world, so she had no choice but to remain an obedient daughter.

"Why are you trembling?" asked Harry, noticing Mary shudder at the frightful thoughts she was having.

"Oh, um, I…I don't know," said Mary. "It's not very safe here with my father lurking about. The last time I saw him, he was sneaking into the forest and rubbing some kind of plant. I'm not quite sure why he'd want to do that."

"Well, let me know if you see him again, so we can retreat back up the hill to keep ourselves from suffering the same fate that other townspeople did in the past," said Harry. "I swear, if he goes anywhere near my kids, he's gonna pay big time."

"I will," said Mary. And with that, Harry and his family continued on their walk. As they sat down on a nearby bench to talk, they didn't notice that the baby carriage with their youngest child in it was left unattended. Mary returned to the forest area to see if SF was still there. But he wasn't, and apparently, neither were the nettles. Where on earth did her father go? She wondered why her father would take those strange plants with him, or what he needed them for. Whatever it was, she didn't like it one bit. Just then, she saw him walk by, pushing a baby carriage. The carriage didn't have a baby in it, but the nettles that SF was pleasuring himself with.

"Mary, look what I found!" he said.

"Father, what are you doing with that?" asked Mary.

"I believe it might be a nettle carrier," said SF. "To hold all the nettles I've been caressing."

"I don't think it's supposed to carry those weird plants," said Mary. "I think it's supposed to carry babies. Where did you even get it?"

"I found it near a bench," said SF. "But it looked like some ugly little baby was occupying it, so I took out the child and placed the nettles inside."

"Where did you put the baby?" asked Mary.

"On the bench," said SF. "Can you believe it was sleeping the whole time? Why, I don't think it even noticed or even made a little peep. I certainly hope it doesn't mind that I use this thing to carry all the nettles I've picked from the forest."

"But doesn't that carrier belong to someone else?" asked Mary. "And why would you want to use it to carry plants? And why would you leave a baby behind unattended on a bench? And why do you like rubbing those plants so much, even though they're giving you blisters? Huh?"

SF's friendly expression quickly turned into a scowl, and he pointed one of his blistered fingers at her and snarled, "That is none of your business, Mary. Stop asking me any questions."

Then he walked off with the baby carriage. Mary had no idea where exactly he was going with it, but she knew she had to bring it back to its owner. Mary quietly followed SF, but then she saw Harry running after him, yelling "Hey, you filthy creature! Come back here with that baby carriage right now!"

"What's going on, Harry?" asked Mary.

"Your stupid father just took the carriage I was using to push my baby around!" shouted Harry.

"Wait, that was yours?" said Mary, feeling surprised.

"Yes!" said Harry. "We left the carriage by the bench to get some water bottles, and when we came back, our baby was lying there on the bench and your father was walking away with the carriage in his hands!"

"He thinks it's some kind of carrier to hold plants in," said Mary. "At least, that's what he told me. I don't know why he would want to do that, though."

"I don't know why he would want to, either," said Harry. "But whatever the reason is, I do not think it's good. I've got to stop him right this instant!"

"Leave it to me," said Mary. "I'll go and see what he's doing with your baby carriage. I just don't want you to get hurt."

Mary rushed over to SF's shack as quickly as she could. As she peeked in through one of the windows, she could see that SF was sitting in the corner of his room, a branch of nettles in hand. He had his shirt off and was rubbing the nettles on his bare chest. He was supposedly pleasuring himself with them, but that was just because he was high on drugs. However, Mary didn't know that yet. Still, she was shocked and disgusted at the sight of her father brushing badly-stinging plants on his nipples. No doubt he would be in for a nasty surprise later on when the effects of the drugs wore off and his chest would be horribly itchy.

"First Father didn't feel pain when he stabbed his finger and almost bled to death, and now he's rubbing weird leaves on his chest," thought Mary. "I'm beginning to wonder if, maybe, there really is something wrong with him…"

Just then, she saw Harry running up to the house. He started to pound his fist on the door, hoping SF would hear him and open it.

"Hey! HEY!" yelled Harry as he angrily banged on the door. "What are you doing in there?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THERE?! Give me back that baby carriage right now, OR ELSE!"

Harry must have been really angry at SF for stealing his baby carriage. Mary had to do something about it. She ran up in front of Harry and pushed the door open. "Don't worry, Mr. Harry," she said. "I'll make sure to bring your carriage back to you, while Father is distracted." Then she immediately ducked inside. She observed her father, who was daydreaming and murmuring about the nettles making him think "happy times". While SF was daydreaming, Mary knew that now was the time to grab the baby carriage and bring it back to Harry. She carefully made sure it didn't have any nettles in it, because if it did, it wouldn't be good for the baby's skin. Luckily, there weren't any nettles in the carriage, so Mary pushed it out the door to give it back to Harry.

"Here's your baby carriage, Harry," she said, handing it to Harry.

"Oh, thank goodness," said Harry, feeling quite relieved. "He didn't damage it. I have no idea why he needed my baby carriage for, but I got a feeling that he wanted to use it for something stupid."

"He did do something stupid with it, alright," said Mary. "He used it to carry some strange plants that gave his hands some blisters and rubbed them on his chest."

"Really?" said Harry. "Oh boy, I sure hope he didn't leave any in the carriage. It would cause my baby to break into a really bad rash, and I certainly don't want that. Neither does my wife."

"Don't worry," said Mary. "I made sure it didn't have any nettles in it. Your baby will be safe."

"Thanks, kid," said Harry. "Guess I'll be off now. Come stop by the BBQ some time if you want. We'll talk about some new items I've added to the menu. See ya."

And with that, he grabbed the baby carriage and went off to pick up his abandoned infant. Once Harry left with the baby carriage, Mary noticed that his apron was lying on the ground. He must have taken it off and thrown it down in a rage when SF didn't open the door to give him back the baby carriage.

"Harry!" she called as the man walked away. "Haaaarryyy! I think you dropped something!"

But Harry couldn't hear her, because he was out of earshot. Just then, SF came outside and saw the apron lying on the ground. However, since he was high, he thought the apron was a person and invited it into the house. He named the apron "Milford Cubicle" and dragged it inside. This action surprised Mary, and she knew that since Harry was really mad when SF stole his baby carriage, he wouldn't be too happy if he learned that his apron had been stolen, too. It must have been very important to him, as he needed it for his shift at work. Mary had to give the apron back to Harry, so she ran into the house to retrieve it. When she stepped inside, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. SF had hung the apron on a meat hook on the wall and was now playing a cheery tune on an Indian flute, and he seemed to be playing it quite well even though his hands were covered in sores from rubbing nettles. Mary found this quite odd, and she had no idea why he was playing a flute, or how he was so good at playing it.

"Father, what are you doing?" asked Mary.

"Oh, I'm just playing some music for my friend Milford Cubicle here," said SF. "Visitors love being serenaded when you invite them to your house."

"Father, I hate to break it to you, but that's not a person you're playing music for," said Mary, pointing to the apron hanging on the wall. "It's an apron! The guy who was wearing it took it off and dropped it at the door before he left."

"Nonsense, child, nonsense!" said SF, taking out a glass full of milk. "I believe Milford wanted to come into my house. I say, would you like a warm glass of milk, Milford Cubicle?"

"Um, where did you get the milk?" asked Mary, knowing that they didn't have any milk in the house.

"It dropped out from inside my teat," said SF, pinching his nipple. "I suppose I made myself lactate by rubbing those nettles on my chest. I simply had no idea nettles could do that."

"Ew," said Mary. "There's no way anyone's gonna drink that."

"Oh, I'm sure Milford would like it," said SF.

"For goodness sake, father," said Mary, getting a little frustrated with her father's delusions. "Are you stupid? I already told you, that is an apron, not a person. It's not going to drink that milk, especially since it came out from your gross, disgusting nips!"

"Now, now, Mary," said SF. "That is not a nice way to treat guests in your house. If you don't think Milford wants any milk, maybe you can have it instead."

"No thanks," groaned Mary. "I'm not thirsty."

"Ah, well, suit yourself then," said SF, taking a hearty swig of the milk. Mary almost felt herself gagging. It was the most disgusting thing she had ever seen, and she had only been in the world for two days. Maybe there was something wrong with SF. Mary had no idea what exactly was wrong with him, or why he was acting so weird, but she knew it wasn't good. If she could survive the next coming days with him, she would eventually figure out what was causing his odd behavior, and maybe find a way to put a stop to it.

Until then, she was just going to have to suck it up. After all, she had to remain an obedient daughter for her father's sake. If not, who knew what kind of horrible things he would do to her? She really didn't want to know.