The Little Friend

Harriet misses Ida and Libby and regrets being rude to both women. Charlotte does occasional chores but neglects basic ones, so the house gets even dirtier. Harriet resists her mother’s efforts to bond.

Harriet also misses people who are still alive, such as Edie, who is busy dealing with legal and financial matters after Libby’s death. Libby used to keep the peace between the sisters, but now, Edie and Adelaide argue a lot. Harriet continues to practice holding her breath at the pool and floating in a “dead man’s” pose. Because they have different teachers and Hely is in band, Harriet and Hely don’t see each other as often.

She sees Danny climbing the water tower one day. He starts coming down, so she runs to the river. She spots Lasharon Odum wearing the gloves Ida gave her. She hits her and takes the gloves, although she knows somebody gave them to her.

Danny did not steal the meth in the water tower, but he senses that Farish is suspicious of him. Danny also found an old photograph of himself near the water tower, and wonders if Farish put it there to scare him. Farish and Danny’s conspiracy theories grow more bizarre as their drug use continues.

Edie and Charlotte go out to lunch, so Harriet snoops in her father’s gun cabinet. The bullet selection in the cabinet is limited, so she finds a gun that fits the bullets in it but is not sure they’re the correct type and still only has a vague sense of how to use a gun. Charlotte lends an old raven costume that she made for Robin to another child to use for cheerleading. She suggests moving back in with Harriet’s father, but Harriet doesn’t want this and goes to Edie, who refuses to interfere.

Danny and Farish cruise the town and spot Harriet. She’s only a few houses away from Edie, so she tramples through other people’s yards until she finds Chester, a man who mows her yard as well as other people’s. She hides in a shed until the Ratliffs leave, and Chester walks her to Edie’s. In addition to not sleeping, Farish and Danny also aren’t getting proper nutrition. Danny vaguely recognizes Edie. He looks up her address and learns her name is E. Cleve—she’s related to Robin, and he probably met her as a child when he attended a party hosted at Tribulation. Danny recalls the day Robin died—he was playing with Robin earlier, but Ida chased him away. Maybe if he’d stayed, he would have been able to save Robin or prevent his death. Danny didn’t kill Robin and doesn’t know who did.

Eugene decides not to be a preacher after all—he’s not good at public speaking or even socializing, and he doesn’t like snakes. However, he still thinks he can do the Lord’s work in different ways such as planting a garden, which he’s reading a pamphlet about. Gum is suspicious of reading and also thinks Eugene will neglect the garden, and it will become her burden. Eugene pleads with Danny to stop using drugs and get some sleep, then cares for him while he rests.

Harriet has no clean clothes left, so she takes one of Allison’s and her dad’s guns, then ventures to the water tower to see what the Ratliffs are hiding. With difficulty, she climbs up the ladder.

Farish is convinced that sleeping destroys people’s brains. He demands that Danny drive him to the water tower so that he can check if any drugs are missing. He noticed Danny failed to mail one of Gum’s bills and instead came back with a muddy truck one day—now he’s suspicious that Danny was at the water tower taking the drugs. Farish pushes Danny into the truck along with two dogs that Farish has trained to attack. Danny goes back inside to get his wallet and a gun. He asks Eugene to take care of Curtis in case anything happens to him. Eugene warns Danny not to leave with Farish, but he leaves anyway.

The water tower is rickety and dangerous. Harriet enters and finds a garbage bag full of methamphetamine. She doesn’t know what it is, but she knows it belongs to the Ratliffs and dumps it in the water.

Danny drives Farish and the dogs toward the water tower. They pass cheerleading practice, where the child in Robin’s raven costume creepily watches their car. Danny vaguely recognizes the costume but doesn’t know from where. He still believes the meth could provide him with an escape from crime and his family. He parks within walking distance of the water tower, where nobody seems to be around. While Farish is distracted by the dogs, Danny shoots him in the head and exits the car. There’s blood all over the windshield, the dogs are barking, and birds are moving around. Danny regrets not planning this better and is struggling to maintain composure. He requires more energy to clean this up and wishes he brought drugs with him. Up in the tower, Harriet hears birds, then dogs barking. She carefully moves and peers over the edge, where she sees Danny standing near his car, the windows of which are smeared with blood. Inside his car, something is moving, and Danny seems scared.

Danny shoots both dogs, using the last of his bullets. He wipes the gun and tosses it away. Danny decides he’ll get some drugs from the tower to help him clean up the crime scene faster. He starts climbing the ladder, and Harriet retrieves her dad’s gun and tries to get into a good position to aim it at Danny, who hasn’t seen her yet. However, she doesn’t have much time, there’s not enough room to position herself properly, and she still doesn’t really know how to aim or shoot a gun. She does her best and fires. The kickback causes the gun to hit Harriet in the nose, and she falls backward, bleeding. The gun blast startles Danny and something hits his head, but he is not shot. He keeps climbing.

Harriet jumps into the water, but Danny drags her out, demanding to know who she is and what she wants from him. He shakes her, but she just screams. He wants to drown her, but he’s scared because he can’t swim. When he notices the drugs floating in the water, he is furious that she’s stolen his fortune and rendered his murder of his own brother pointless. Infuriated, Danny pushes her head underwater. He pulls her up, she breathes, and he pushes her under again. He holds her underwater until she stops moving and seems dead. He’s afraid during this process because he thinks he might get pulled underwater and drown too. He lets Harriet float off into the dark end of the tank. Harriet is secretly still alive, thanks to her practice of holding her breath and floating in a dead man’s pose. She’s in a sort of trance due to the lack of oxygen and tells herself to wait a bit longer before sneaking a breath.

Danny turns away. Harriet sneaks a breath. Danny tries to climb down the ladder, but his foot goes through a rotten piece of wood and he falls in. He sees that Harriet is still alive, but she runs off while he struggles to swim. He’s struggling to breathe, and Harriet assumes she’s leaving him to die.

She goes home and bathes thoroughly, but she can’t get rid of the horrible smell from the water in the tower. She vomits and has a fever, then has a seizure and feels confused. She wakes up in a hospital with Edie and a nurse there. Harriet knows the water made her sick, but she doesn’t want the doctors to discover this and know that she was at the tower. However, she also worries they won’t be able to treat her properly if they don’t learn what’s wrong. Edie is annoyed that the doctor is ignoring all of Harriet’s symptoms except the ones that are clearly from a seizure, therefore failing to learn what the other issues are besides the seizure. Harriet sees Curtis in the hallway and panics because his family is surely nearby. Harriet begs Edie to stay with her, but Edie has to leave.

Eugene finds Harriet’s room, but the nurse won’t tell him much besides her name. Farish isn’t likely to survive long. Eugene decides he’ll try to find out more about Harriet once there’s a shift change. Edie suspects Harriet’s illness is due to her house becoming even dirtier after Ida got fired. Harriet wakes up later and finds Eugene standing over her and nobody else. He knows she’s been following them but doesn’t know about the water tower incident. Harriet says nothing. Mr. Dial soon arrives and interrupts, and Eugene leaves.

Hely calls Harriet, and Mr. Dial leaves too. Harriet asks Hely to retrieve the gun she left near the water tower. Hely calls again later—he retrieved the gun but wants to tell other kids about it. Harriet points out that his fingerprints are on it now, and she could lie about the water tower, which convinces him to be careful about who he tells, at least for now. A police officer finds Eugene to question him about his brothers’ illegal businesses. The officer can’t find Danny and informs him that Farish is dead.

Harriet is sleeping a lot from her medicine but wakes up to find both her parents visiting her. They saw Eugene in the hallway and are talking about how Danny used to play with Robin. For the first time, Harriet considers she might have been wrong about Danny. Harriet is cold toward her father. She still assumes Danny is dead from drowning, although she realizes she didn’t actually murder him (or Gum). She still feels like she’s done something wrong and secretive.

The next day’s newspaper reveals that Danny is in police custody for Farish’s murder, so Harriet learns he didn’t drown after all. Although Danny will be going to prison and probably can’t hurt her from there, especially since he still never learned her name, Harriet still worries he’ll be sick in the same way she was and that people will make a connection. A neurologist from out of town travels to inspect Harriet. He speaks to Edie, but Harriet can’t hear what they’re saying.

At their own house, Pem and Hely discuss the news story about Danny and Farish Ratliff. Pem is amazed that Danny was hiding in the tower for two days despite not being able to swim. Hely can’t stop himself and says that’s not the whole truth: In reality, Harriet killed Farish, then pushed Danny in there to drown him because Danny killed Robin. Pem says Danny did not kill Robin, and Harriet wouldn’t have been able to push Danny into a water tower. Hely claims this is why Harriet is in the hospital, but Pem says it’s because she has epilepsy.