Incidents Around the House

Russ, or Daddo, is Bela’s father and Ursula’s husband. He is easy-going and positive. Ursula says, “He’s always been optimistic. Something happens, he says okay we’ll fix it. Something really bad happens he says okay we’ll get through it” (277). Throughout the novel, she characterizes him as the light to her dark. He loves to socialize and throw parties and often greets his wife with a drink in hand as she returns from work. Initially, Bela finds security in her father’s fun-loving side. The two of them spend a lot of time together alone, especially when Ursula becomes entangled in an affair. He encourages Bela to think of them as “best friends” and often counsels her as a friend instead of a parent.

Later in the novel, it becomes apparent that some of Russ’s determined optimism is a detriment. He chooses to ignore the problems in his marriage, such as Ursula’s infidelity, and he would rather be the fun parent than give Bela discipline or boundaries. For example, he lets her overeat at breakfast until she is sick, rather than telling her no. When he and Ursula reveal that he is not Bela’s biological father, she is devastated and thinks that he is a liar and a bad person. Russ is shaken by this incident and reflects on his own flaws, saying of himself, “You might think something bad is going on at home, but no. It’s going on in you” (340). His fate is ambiguous at the end of the novel, but Bela finds him and Ursula lying on the carpet, and it is strongly implied that he was killed or seriously injured by Other Mommy and that ultimately, he was unable to protect Bela.

Ursula is Bela’s mother and Russ’s wife. She and Russ had an affair when she was married to a man named Douglas Cain, and Bela is Douglas’s biological child, though he abandoned Ursula when he found out about the affair. Bela’s parentage is one of the many secrets Ursula hides from her family. She is serially unfaithful to Russ and often experiences motherhood as a burden. She confides to Russ, “Do you have any idea how many times I wished I didn’t have to watch our kid, how many times I wished I was out at the bar, how many times I wanted to be doing anything other than parenting?” (345). She comes to believe that Other Mommy is “retribution” for her bad parenting, saying, “I sent some bad stuff out and some bad stuff came back” (344). She feels that Russ is too positive and happy, whereas she thinks of herself as having secrets and dark corners. She complains that the pressure of being the dark to his light is too much at times.

Ursula also struggles to accept the reality of Other Mommy and flees from her family, leaving them at Grandma Ruth’s house. She only returns when Frank, her lover, is killed. Despite these selfish actions, she does love her daughter. When she confesses the truth about her parentage, she says, “I don’t want anything in this world to like you less than it does Bela, not even a monster […] because I want everything in this world and any world to love you” (329). She is also willing to fight Other Mommy physically to protect Bela, and ultimately is left either dead or incapacitated by the entity while defending her daughter.

Grandma Ruth is Ursula’s widowed mother. She is a source of comfort and stability for Bela. Though she is a tiny person, “not much bigger than [Bela]” (132), she has a big personality. She loves her daughter, but she is clear-eyed about Ursula’s flaws and has a close relationship with Russ. When Ursula disappears after seeing Other Mommy, she tells Russ, “I’m going to have some words with your wife” (166), implying that she is critical of her daughter’s behavior.

Unlike Russ and Ursula, Ruth believes in telling the truth, and Bela likes that “[s]he doesn’t pretend everything is okay” (158). When Ursula tries to avoid talking about the entity with Bela, Ruth tells her, “This is your daughter […] And if you can’t talk about whatever this is with her, then you’ve got bigger problems than whatever you saw in her bedroom” (146). Though she knows Bela is a child and takes care with her, making sure she is buckled in the car, for example, Grandma Ruth also does not believe in lying to her granddaughter.

Ruth is the first person to get plain answers from Bela about what Other Mommy says and how often Bela has spoken to her. She thinks that the best way to deal with the unknown is to be practical about it, saying, “I think that’s the first step toward solving this” (167). Despite the shock of confronting the Other Mommy, Grandma Ruth is willing to return to Bela’s home and try to help her because she loves her grandchild. Ultimately, this leads to her death.

Lois is an acquaintance of Russ’s who is interested in paranormal phenomena. She attempts to help Bela and her family, though she is ultimately unsuccessful. She has “red hair and big glasses,” and Bela thinks of her as “genuine” (59). From the beginning, she takes Bela seriously. She shakes her hand like an adult when she meets her and believes what she says about Other Mommy. Though Ursula and Russ initially perceive her as an oddball, she is not a flighty or insincere person.

Lois’s defining characteristic is her willingness to help others. Though the other members of her circle point out that contacting the entity could be dangerous, she stands firm and insists that it is the right thing for them to do. When she contacts Other Mommy, she states: “Bela wants to be left alone. So that Bela might grow into the beautiful human being Bela is destined to become” (175). After this incident fails, she again contacts their family and tries to help. Ultimately, her assistance ends in failure. Bela is forced to confront not only the secrets kept by the adults in her world, but their powerlessness to help her: “Her face is red. She’s shaking. They’re all so scared and embarrassed and full of lies” (338-39). However, despite her failure, Lois is genuine in her desire to help and in her persistence.