Incidents Around the House

Her parents take her upstairs and take turns showering and getting dressed. Russ shaves and Ursula trims her hair and Bela’s. Bela thinks that they are getting dressed up like they are going out somewhere, but they tell her they are just taking care of themselves because it feels nice. Ursula looks in the mirror and says she almost feels like her old self. They escort Bela to her room and let her put on her party clothes. She walks down the hall in between them, and they both hold knives.

Russ and Ursula say to each other that this is their house, their child, and their fight.

Bela falls asleep at the table with her parents. When she wakes up, there is a creaking upstairs. The dogs are at the bottom of the stairs, growling. Her parents urge her to come with them. Bela is worried and keeps imagining their knives stabbing Other Mommy. She thinks that Other Mommy used to be a friend.

Upstairs, they go to the closet and rush in, trying to stab the entity. Bela can smell Other Mommy and hear her asking why they are doing this. However, she realizes that Other Mommy is not in the closet, but in her bedroom. The doorbell starts ringing and her parents lose their nerve, realizing that Other Mommy is not there.

When they answer the door, it is Lois. She tells them she has been researching because she feels like she failed them. She explains that they can’t hurt it with knives or weapons but that they will need to make Bela less appetizing to it. She tells them they will not like her answer but explains that it is attracted to innocence, and they will need to take that innocence away.

Ursula initially lunges at Lois, but Russ calms her down. The neighbors all come outside to watch what is happening. They finally agree to Lois’s plan and drive to Lake Michigan together after calling the trainers to come get the dogs.

Lois says they can camp by Sleeping Bear Dunes to get some distance from the creature. Then hopefully they can talk. If Bela learns about the world, then she will no longer be so appealing to the creature. Bela is worried about all of this and is especially worried because her parents seem angry. Lois tells Bela’s parents that Grandma Ruth told her the truth, and they are furious. Though Bela doesn’t know it yet, the truth is that Russ is not her biological father.

Bela’s parents sleep under a big umbrella on the shore of Lake Michigan. She and Lois walk down to the water, and Lois tells her that what happens tonight will change her understanding of the world but that it is necessary. She asks Bela questions about Other Mommy, like if Bela knows where she’s from. Bela says no but tells Lois that Other Mommy said reincarnation would be as easy for her as slipping on a dress.

Far away in the dunes, they see what looks like a dog walking toward them. However, it never seems to get any closer. Ursula wakes up and calls to them, asking what she missed. When Lois tells her that nothing has happened, she remarks that it is the first time in a long time that she hasn’t woken up in the middle of something horrible. Then she looks at Bela and adds that they are still in the middle of it.

Lois and Ursula gather wood and make a fire as the sun goes down. Russ asks Bela if she can sense anything. He points out that people are fascinated by the supernatural, but no one knows how to help. Bela corrects him and says that Lois did.

Sitting by the fire, Lois talks about how innocence is an animal-like state concerned with survival, where someone has no knowledge of how cruel people can be. She says that taking away Bela’s innocence will hopefully make her less desirable to Other Mommy. Ursula says that she will tell the story and tells Bela that it is not a nice story and will make her see the world differently.

Ursula explains that she got married young to a much older man named Douglas Cain. She was unhappy in her marriage and had a series of affairs before starting a relationship with Russ. She explains that all the times they told Bela about conversations she and Daddo had in college, they were actually having them in the small apartment where they conducted their affair. Though they went to the same college, they never knew each other there.

During this time, she became pregnant. She told both Russ and Douglas, separately, about the pregnancy, and she waited until she could take a paternity test to find out who the father was. Both men were happy about the baby, and she felt guiltier and guiltier. Eventually, before the test results, Douglas followed her to the apartment and caught her with Russ. He abandoned her, and when the test results came back, it turned out that Douglas was the biological father. However, Russ didn’t care and married Ursula, vowing to raise Bela as his own.

Ursula ends her story by saying that she doesn’t want to tell Bela this and that, even if it will make a monster like her less, she doesn’t want anything in the world to love Bela less because she loves her so much.

Bela cries and tries to run away, but the adults catch her. She calls them liars and calls out for Other Mommy. She tries to run toward the dunes where she saw the dog, thinking that animals are smarter than people. The adults stop her and try to comfort her.

She hears the dog crawling toward her and decides to lie to the adults since they are all liars. She tells them Other Mommy is gone and that their plan worked.

The next morning, Bela tries to walk alone, but Daddo follows her, saying they can use the time to talk. He tries to justify what happened, explaining that they never knew when to tell her the secret. He adds that there wasn’t an incident with the entity last night, so maybe Lois was right. Bela interrupts and asks what she should call him. He says she can call him whatever she wants, and she thinks that she wants to call him a liar.

Back at the campsite, Lois and Ursula are putting things away. Bela runs into the water and sinks under it, thinking that she sees Other Mommy’s feet down there with her. The adults pull her out, and over Ursula’s shoulder, Bela sees Other Mommy’s head bobbing in the water.

As her parents dry her off and comfort her, Lois asks them if they saw something out in the water. Ursula slaps her, knocking her glasses off. Russ gives the glasses back, and Lois says she is going to rent a car and head back home. They tell her that is for the best.

Ursula paces on the beach, and Russ tells Bela that he hopes they did the right thing but that it feels like they broke something fragile. Bela says that she wants to go home, and he agrees, saying that they tried to escape but now realize that they are carrying home with them.

In the car driving back, Ursula tells Russ that she thinks this is retribution for all the bad things she has done. He tries to console her, but she insists and lists all the ways that she is a bad mother. He points out that Bela can hear, but Ursula bitterly says that she thought that was the point of the whole activity—to sully the golden child. She confesses that she thinks the entity came because she wasn’t properly grateful for her life but that she still isn’t grateful for it.

While her parents argue, Bela becomes convinced that Other Mommy is in the trunk. She thinks she can feel Other Mommy kicking her seat and smell her.

At the house, Grandma Ruth has arrived. Russ says he texted her. Bela asks if she is really her grandmother, and she says yes. The four of them face the house.

Ursula and Russ walk around the house while Grandma talks to Bela. She uses the metaphor of a house to say that each person’s heart is full of rooms and experiences. She cautions Bela to only let the right kind of feelings in. She tells her that today she learned a secret and that it could turn into a statue, freezing in time and occupying a room forever, but it doesn’t have to. Bela says she understands.

Grandma offers to stay up late, so Ursula and Russ sleep in the dining room. She and Bela start to work on the Michigan puzzle together and Grandma tells her that they are going to solve it.

Bela keeps nodding off, and Grandma urges her to stay awake and keep her company. As they work the puzzle, she tells Bela that the beach and road are just where she and her parents were earlier. Bela becomes disoriented and imagines that she sees hairs on Grandma’s finger.

She awakens, and Grandma is staring at her, but now her face seems lower than her head. Bela realizes it is Other Mommy. Other Mommy continues Grandma’s conversation from earlier about hearts being rooms and asks if there is room in Bela’s heart.

Bela runs away and hides in the foyer closet. She hears her parents wake up, and then she hears Grandma Ruth’s voice from upstairs, screaming for help. As her parents rush upstairs, she fumbles in the dark for something to help her fight off Other Mommy. She touches a hand and rushes out of the closet, frightened. She sees the body of Grandma Ruth inside, dead. She hears loud noises and her parents screaming and groaning. Then everything goes quiet.

Bela walks upstairs and sees her parents lying face down on the carpet. She tells them that they can sleep because she is awake. She sits on her bed and cries, thinking that she needs a friend. Other Mommy comes out of her closet and asks Bela if she can go into her heart. Bela thinks about her parents laughing at the zoo and says yes.

She hears Other Mommy practicing speaking in Bela’s voice, and finds herself in a huge, empty place, all alone.