My Favorite Thing Is Monsters

The tape ends. Sam is asleep on the floor, and Karen creeps off into Anka and Sam’s bedroom to see what she can find. She finds a ripped-up picture of a little girl who looks like the woman Sam was yelling at when Karen arrived home earlier. Karen sets off for home, having stolen the tape, and pondering everything she learned about Anka. She wonders if it was all true, or if any of what Anka said “came from inside her head” (225). She wonders if any of the people Anka spoke about have a grudge against her, or if they are even still alive. Karen thinks about the locked door in the basement of her apartment building. When she gets home, she asks Deeze if he loved Anka. He answers yes, and explains, “If there is a God then loving people when they don’t deserve it is his whole gig. That’s what Anka showed me” (232).

The bullying Karen faces at school is getting worse. One morning, a group of boys push her down, begin spitting on her, and teasing her for having a sick mother. Karen hears Anka whisper “Nazi, Nazi, Nazi” (241) into her ear, stating that Nazis are people who refuse to see their own acts of cruelty.