Something Happened Chapter 1 Summary

I get the willies

  • Bob Slocum gets "the willies" when he sees closed doors, fearing that something horrible is happening behind them.
  • Bob also fears that something must have happened to him sometime.
  • Hmm, sounds like foreshadowing—er, flashback-shadowing? Either way, we hope we find out what this mystery event is.
  • Bob recounts a memory from childhood in which he found his big brother having sex with Billy Foster's skinny kid sister in the old wooden coal shed behind their apartment.
  • From this incident, Bob witnessed his own brother transform from a boy into a man, and the experience was enticingly eye opening.
  • Slocum reveals his aversion to hospitals and his fear of discovering that one of his acquaintances could be dead. Hence, he enjoys prank-calling hospitals just to see what it feels like to hear the hospital tell him that someone he knows is dead. (Doesn't this guy have Netflix to watch?)
  • Slocum hates surprises, conflict, and the mice that run around in his kitchen cupboard.
  • He and his wife have two children, both high strung and insecure, and a third kid named Derek, who has severe brain damage.