Incidents Around the House
by Malerman, Josh
Contents
Chapter 29
Overview
After escaping Frank Doherty's house, Bela's family spends the night in their car at a gas station, exhausted and without a real plan beyond possibly seeking a priest or an occultist. Alone with her thoughts, Bela remembers that her earliest encounters with Other Mommy were not only frightening but strangely intimate, and she admits she once treated the entity like a secret friend who shared her anger. When Bela sees Other Mommy's face in the water on a stranger's windshield, the chapter suggests the haunting has followed them everywhere and that Bela's emotional connection to it remains part of the threat.
Summary
After fleeing Frank Doherty's house, Bela's family stops at a brightly lit gas station and sleeps in the car. Bela stays awake while Daddo snores in the driver's seat, Grandma Ruth dozes in front, and Mommy sleeps beside Bela in back. Watching strangers glance at the car, Bela feels as if other people can sense that something is wrong with her family. Grandma Ruth, still shaken, says she is trying to process what happened and tells Bela she was brave to speak with the thing in her bedroom.
Bela thinks about how the adults still do not know what to call the entity, but Bela continues to think of it as Other Mommy. Remembering the first nights in her bedroom, Bela recalls the closet doors opening slightly, the dark eyes inside, and the smell and movement of the figure when it left the closet. One night the figure said, "Peekaboo," using one of Mommy's old playful phrases, and when Bela called her Mommy, the figure corrected Bela and named herself Other Mommy. These memories explain why the haunting feels both familiar and terrifying to Bela.
In the present, Daddo keeps saying they will figure things out tomorrow and tries to stay optimistic, while Mommy argues that going home would make no difference because the danger is not tied to one place. Grandma Ruth mentions finding a priest, and Daddo awkwardly suggests an occultist, which shows how desperate and uncertain the adults have become. Bela presses an ear against the seat to listen to her heartbeat and wonders whether Other Mommy really could get into her heart. Bela also admits to herself that she once waited for Other Mommy and partly welcomed her, because Bela sensed in the figure the same anger and urge to scream that Bela sometimes feels.
As Bela drifts in and out of sleep, a gas station worker quietly checks on the family. Then Bela watches a man cleaning his windshield and sees what looks like Other Mommy's upside-down face stretching through the dripping water on the glass. Even after the man wipes the windshield and drives away, Bela cannot tell whether the eyes were fully erased or whether Other Mommy is still looking at Bela. Falling asleep, Bela decides that she and Other Mommy are not really friends, yet the chapter ends with Bela still disturbed by how close that relationship once felt.
Who Appears
- BelaNarrator; awake in the car, she recalls her first encounters with Other Mommy and confronts her conflicted feelings.
- Other MommyThe haunting entity; remembered from Bela's closet and apparently glimpsed again in windshield water at the gas station.
- DaddoDrives the family to safety, urges optimism, and suggests finding outside help such as an occultist.
- MommyExhausted and shaken; argues that going home would not stop the entity and then falls asleep beside Bela.
- Grandma RuthStill processing the horror, she praises Bela's bravery and proposes seeking help from a priest.