Her hands are like my mother's hands but there is something else in them too, something I have never felt before and have no name for.
-- Narrator (chapter 2)

Importance: The narrator has this thought as she is bathed by Mrs. Kinsella on her first day at her house. It is significant in that it is one of the first indications we receive that Mrs. Kinsella possesses a quality that the main character finds lacking in her own mother. This sets up the contrast between the parenting style of the Kinsellas versus that of her parents and all of the factors that make the Kinsellas more compassionate and loving toward the main character. The bond between these two characters becomes quite strong as the novella goes on, but already here the main character feels something almost instinctual about Mrs. Kinsella when she barely even knows her. This becomes clearer later on, too, when we...