How It All Goes Down
- Erma dies. Lori's reaction: "Ding-dong, the witch is dead" (3.13.5).
- Dad is furious that Lori would talk about his dead mother that way, so he leaves and doesn't return for four days.
- Mom sends Jeannette to find Dad and bring him home.
- Jeannette finds Dad at a bar called the Howdy House.
- Another bar patron drives Jeannette and her drunk dad home.
- The driver asks young Jeannette what she wants to be when she grows up, and she says a veterinarian or a geologist.
- "For the daughter of the town drunk, you sure got big plans" (3.13.30), the driver says. He means it as a compliment, but Jeannette takes offense.
- A few months after Erma dies, Uncle Stanley burns down her house, so he and Grandpa move into an apartment.
- Occasionally Jeannette uses their apartment to bathe, but Uncle Stanley touches her thigh and unzips his pants when she does this.
- When Jeannette tells Mom that Uncle Stanley groped her, Mom brushes it off. "He's so lonely" (3.13.41), she says. Ugh.
- Jeannette decides to use a metal tub to bathe at home.
- Speaking of water, it rains so much in the spring that the porch rots off. The family will be lucky to still have a house this time next year.