Thomas's preferred method of avoiding conversations he did not want to have was to say he had to go "water his daisy", after which he would rush off.
This turned out to not be any sort of euphemism at all. He had a potted daisy. He experimented on the effects of new, dangerous mutagenic street drug "Steel Breath" by mixing bits of it into the plant food for his daisy. Of course he talked to his plants while taking measurements and watering them.
One day in the middle of August, the daisy talked back.
A couple of days later, it extracted itself from the pot and went for a very wobbly walk across the campsite, got its own drink of water, then returned to its pot.