Well, it turns out that Lulu didn’t exactly say, “I’m sorry, Fleischman.” What she actually said to him was, “Untie me, Fleischman,” followed ten or twenty seconds later by a growly sounding “please.”

Fleischman stopped tooting and stood right in front of the very grumpy, very tied-up Lulu. “Teammates untie each other,” Fleischman told her. “But I’m not your teammate.”

“An assistant unties his boss,” said Lulu, giving Fleischman one of her fiercer glares. “And, Fleischman, you’re my assistant—so untie me.”

“In case you didn’t notice,” said Fleischman, who wasn’t one bit bothered by Lulu’s glare, “I am not your assistant anymore. I quit last Friday.”

“A person can’t quit on Friday,” said Lulu, “just by not coming back to work on Monday. A person has to say ‘I quit’ to quit.”

“Okay, then,” Fleischman said to Lulu. “I quit.” And then he walked slowly past her, playing some more of “You Are My Sunshine” on his flute.

With Lulu loudly yelling, “You get back here, Fleischman! You get back here now!”