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Don’t wanna sleep. Don’t wanna die. Just wanna go a-travelin’ through the pastures of the sky.

This lyric, often sung by Holly as she plays the guitar on her fire escape, comes up several times over the course of the novella. For the narrator, who initially overhears Holly without her knowledge, the folksy song offers a peek behind Holly’s cosmopolitan façade. Later, the narrator hears Doc whistling the tune when the narrator first encounters him. The song is a remnant from Holly’s past, linking who she is now to who she was before she ran away. This connection is furthered when the reader learns that Doc is the one who taught her how to play the guitar. The lyric also expresses Holly’s desire for freedom and her restless nature, anticipating her eventual description of herself as a “wild thing” traveling through the empty sky, during her conversation with the narrator and Joe after Doc leaves. The song becomes a glimpse into how Holly sees herself, a person who must wander in search of the contentment and sense of belonging that continually elude her.

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