The narrator tells us that he's going back to school, but he doesn't feel like it. He's staying behind with his mom, who's been telling him to come home for the holidays. The narrator wants to go home, too, because he'd like to be like the hermit crabs who live far away. He tells us about how he was called a snail when he was a kid, and how his friends protected him from being kidnapped. He wants to buy a cake and eat it by himself instead of being kidnapped by someone else. He also wants to know why they're outside, and why they don't have a blanket to protect them from the chill. He asks about the landlord's strange habit of keeping warm on her neck when she gets cold, and she tells him that it's just a normal thing for her to do. She also tells him about the store that's closed on New Year's Eve, and that she'll carry his bags for him.