The Little Friend

Harriet still has affection for Curtis despite disliking his family. She feels bad for him and suspects the family mistreats him. She talks to him outside the Mormon missionaries’ apartment while Mr. Dial goes inside the building. She looks in the Ratliffs’ truck and sees several boxes of poisonous snakes. Curtis warns her they’re “munsters” who will bite, not “friendly” like Curtis. Harriet doesn’t realize that Eugene lives above the Mormon missionaries, so she thinks the snakes belong to the Mormons. However, Hely tells her that someone else rents the top apartment.

Essie Lee, Hely’s family’s housekeeper, fusses at Hely for being in his closed bedroom with a girl. Hely threatens to twist her words to get her fired and claim she said she would burn their house down. Harriet doesn’t like this because it’s a blatant lie, which she calls out when Hely and Pem enthusiastically recount it. Harriet convinces Pem to drive her and Hely past the Mission, where the snakes are located. The top floor’s windows are suspiciously covered with tinfoil, and as they drive past, someone fiddles with the foil as if looking through it. Pem reveals that Danny and Eugene live in the top-floor apartment.

Eugene indeed noticed the car driving past his house and is now anxious. He assumes someone is spying on him and suspects Farish is responsible—he assumes that Farish is deep into some crime, and now, people are watching his family. Eugene confronts Farish, who becomes more paranoid about it than Eugene, and Eugene regrets notifying him. Loyal plans to leave the next morning, so Farish and Danny need to hide the drugs in his truck before that. Danny suggests they go to the town square where Eugene and Loyal will be preaching, but Farish would rather wait until they get home later.

Harriet is mad because Ida won’t stay late to tell her a story. She then lets it slip to her mother that there’s nothing to eat, and rather than cook or go shopping, Charlotte says she’ll fire Ida. Harriet and Hely go to the town square where Eugene is preaching, then ride over to his apartment since he’s currently not home, and they figure they can snoop around. The only way in is through a bathroom window, which is a tight squeeze even for the children. Harriet finds some snakes and chooses one that she wants to steal. She and Hely start dragging the snake box to the exit, but soon, they hear car tires and get separated.

Hely retreats into the apartment to hide under a bean bag chair in the dark. He doesn’t know where Harriet is. Soon, he hears voices and footsteps entering the apartment, but nobody spots him. He panics because his parents don’t know where he is, and Harriet may or may not even be alive anymore. He’s certain that if the Ratliffs discover him, they’ll murder him like they did Robin. He can’t get to the exit without passing the men, or so he thinks. He releases some poisonous snakes, hoping to create a diversion that will give him enough time to escape. He then gets lost and panics more.

Harriet, meanwhile, is hiding underneath the house with the snake (which is still in a box). She scrambled there when she heard the car coming and waited until the passengers all went inside and it was quiet for a while. Hely’s bike is where they left it, so she concludes he’s still inside. To create a diversion and give Hely time to escape, she breaks the truck’s headlights and taillights and pokes the tires, then knocks on the Ratliffs’ door to inform them about it. They go outside to check it out, and Hely escapes undetected. Harriet claims she doesn’t know who specifically vandalized the car, but the Ratliffs don’t think it was her because if it was, she wouldn’t have alerted them. They still feel like Harriet is suspicious, though. Danny says she looks like a child of Odum’s. She gives them a fake name, but they keep questioning her. Suddenly, someone inside the building screams, and the men go running in. Harriet runs off. Farish confronts Loyal, whom he suspects is behind the vandalism and/or surveillance. Danny redirects Farish’s attention to the snakes that are now loose in the building.

Loyal quickly corrals most of the snakes, but there’s one missing, and Eugene gets bit (but not fatally so). Mr. Dial arrives, but the men get him to leave by saying they need to take Eugene to the hospital, which they then do. Meanwhile, a snake sneaks into the downstairs apartment where the Mormon missionaries live.