Incidents Around the House

Bela feels relieved to be in Grandma Ruth’s home. It is tiny, like her grandmother, but cozy and smells like cooking. She pets Milky, her grandma’s dog, and listens to her parents lie about how their power went out. Grandma makes Daddo a sandwich and gently asks questions about how they discovered the outage. Finally, she confronts them and tells them to tell her what is really going on. They refuse to do so, just saying that they had a scare and wanted to sleep somewhere else. She doesn’t press the issue, and the three of them sleep in her living room.

As Bela falls asleep, Milky licks her face. Half asleep, she dreams of Milky becoming as big as the room and giggling, still licking her.

The next morning, Bela lies in the living room, pretending to sleep. Her parents are talking in the kitchen, trying to decide what to do. Mommy insists that they can never go back and will need to buy a new house after burning down the old one. Daddo points out that they need to get his work computer and some other things.

Grandma interrupts and says that they need an exorcist.