The Wrong Family

Juno notices that Winnie and Nigel are fighting again and that their fights seem to be worse when Sam isn’t home. Juno overhears Nigel saying, “No. You’re right. I don’t know what it’s like to steal someone’s infant” (80). Juno is shocked and begins speculating about what might have happened and if Sam was the stolen infant.

Nigel spends the night in the den instead of in his and Winnie’s bedroom. Winnie pulls herself together, thinking, “She [has] to be Samuel’s mom today, not Nigel’s angry wife” (83). Winnie worries Nigel has told Samuel about her secret. She reflects that she only took the job at Illuminations because Nigel called her “spoiled.” She notes, “He would have believed in her commitment to the cause, too, had she not done what she’d done” (85-86).

Juno is ill and reading in Winnie’s book nook. Still thinking about what she overheard about a kidnapped baby, she makes her way to the family computer. She searches for missing children from 2008, Samuel’s birth year, and writes down the names of children who went missing and were never found. Later, Nigel and Winnie fight again. Nigel shouts that they could make more money if she would allow him to find a tenant, to which Winnie replies, “I made it very clear that I don’t want a stranger in my home—then or now” (90).

A flashback recounts how Juno met the Crouch family. She follows Nigel and Winnie as they walk around the park lake. She is feeling depressed, but watching the family makes her feel better. She notices that the couple seems to have a close relationship, even when angry with each other, and her curiosity quickly escalates to “obsession.” She peeks into the family’s mailbox to get their names and then searches for them on the internet at the public library. Juno moves in when “an opportunity present[s] itself […] like any person would” (97): While workers are building the apartment addition, Juno walks into the unlocked house, hiding in a closet to avoid discovery. When she tries to sneak back out, she discovers that the alarm is on and that she will set it off if she opens the door. She eats cake and chips that were left out for Samuel’s sleepover and returns to hiding in the closet. The family eventually leaves and Juno takes a bath, finds clothes that are labeled “donations,” and takes granola bars and other shelf-stable goods to her hiding place in the closet.

Juno’s plan is to sneak out of the house on Monday when the Crouches go to work and school. She thinks about the places she has had to sleep: her car, a café, a bench, and the park. She has taken some Advil she found in the house and it is helping her pain. As she hears the Crouch family watch a movie and eat pizza, she reflects, “They [are] happy, and there [was] a time when Juno’s family [was] happy, as well. Humans [have] a way of uprooting happiness” (118).

The family prepares to leave the house on Monday morning. Winnie complains that she thinks the workers are coming in the house to use the bathroom (in reality, it’s Juno who is doing so). Winnie and Nigel bicker about the bathroom situation. Nigel brushes against the doorknob of the closet where Juno is hiding and she wets her pants, but he leaves the house without incident. After they’re gone, Juno washes her laundry, finds more donation clothes, and washes up. She is determined to clean up after herself: “No, Juno [has] stayed in their home, and she [is] not a houseguest who [leaves] her dishes unwashed. She [begins] the long process of soaking up the urine with wads of the paper towel” (123).

Juno discovers a trapdoor in the closet where she has been hiding; it leads to a crawl space, which she decides is a good place for her to stay. She names the closet “Hem’s Corner” and gathers supplies to be able to live in the crawl space.