From that time on, until Lulu’s mom and her dad went away the next morning, Lulu had not one moment just with them. Whenever they knocked at the bedroom door, Ms. Solinsky bellowed, “We’re still bonding,” though, in fact, what they mostly were doing was glaring. At dinner Ms. Solinsky was right at Lulu’s side. And early on Saturday morning, when Lulu’s mom and her dad were kissing her good-bye and Lulu was getting ready to make-believe faint in one last effort to stop them from going, Ms. Solinsky was stationed directly behind her, holding tight to the back of her skirt so she couldn’t fall.

As her mom and her dad headed out to the taxi, Lulu heard her mom saying, “If things don’t work out with Lulu . . .”

And her dad saying, “. . . and it’s just possible that they won’t . . .”

And her mom saying, “. . . call us, and we’ll take the next plane home.”

To which Ms. Solinsky firmly replied, “When I’m the babysitter, things ALWAYS work out.”

“We’ll see about that,” Lulu said to herself, preparing for Plan B, which was doing whatever she had to do to get her parents to take the next plane home.

Then the door slammed, and Lulu was all alone with Ms. Solinsky, trained professional.