The Housemaid is Watching

On the day of the move, Ada cries in her room, as she misses her friends and her old life. Millie is an amazing mother, and Enzo is an amazing father, but they do not understand the depth of her sadness. Enzo promises that if she’s still miserable in Long Island in a year, they’ll move back to the Bronx. Ada wonders if she’ll feel different in a year.

Step 2 of Ada’s guide is: “Try to Fit In—Badly” (298). At school, Ada hates being the new kid. The other students struggle to understand her Italian identity, ask her silly and offensive questions, and some even misunderstand the word “Italian” as “alien.”

A boy named Gabe tells Ada that she is “the most beautiful alien” he’s ever seen (299). Ada feels uncomfortable with Gabe’s attention, especially when he talks about a missing child named Braden Lundie and offers to walk Ada home. When she refuses, he asks to hang out after school. She says no, but he persists. Ada doesn’t like him and finds him creepy, but sitting with him at lunch is better than sitting alone.

On the school bus home, Nico tells Ada he had a great first day, making a number of friends who also play baseball. He hopes to play with them in the park, but Ada tells him about the missing Braden Lundie and warns him to be careful; Nico responds that Ada worries more than Millie. When they get home, a man stares at them from the Lowell House. Ada finds it odd, even though he waves.

Step 3 of Ada’s guide is “Learn to Live in Your New Home” (306). Nico has been going over to the Lowells’ house to clean after he broke their window. When Ada asks Nico what he cleans, he is cagey. Ada feels something is wrong, especially when Nico starts locking his door when he goes to his room after dinner. She decides to talk to him the next day on the school bus.

The next morning, Nico is nowhere to be found. Ada begins to make herself cereal for breakfast, but Martha offers to make Ada an omelet instead. As Martha gets the eggs out of the fridge, Ada notices a ring of bruises around Martha’s wrist. She asks if Martha hurt herself, but Martha struggles to answer. Ada wonders if she can somehow help Martha. She then hears the front door shut as Nico goes to the bus stop. Ada rushes after him, apologizing to Martha. She figures Martha wouldn’t want to confide in a child, anyway.

One day, Enzo is supposed to pick Ada up after school to take her to ice cream. When Enzo runs a little late, Ada thinks about the missing child Braden, worried that someone will take her, too. While Ada waits for Enzo, Gabe comes up to her. He asks her to be his girlfriend, but she refuses. He continues asking, trying to hold her hand. When she again says no, Gabe grabs Ada by the wrist and does not let go, even as she struggles. Enzo then arrives, shouts at Gabe to release Ada, and threatens him if he ever touches Ada again. Gabe runs away, and Enzo brings Ada into his truck.

Enzo tells Ada that she needs to be able to protect herself since he can’t always be around, like he wasn’t able to protect Antonia. He gives her his pocketknife, which his father had given to him when he was young. Though Ada worries she’ll get in trouble for carrying around a knife, Enzo promises her it’s okay if she keeps it a secret. He also explains how to stab a person in the stomach.

Step 4 of Ada’s guide is “Start to Suspect the Terrible Truth” (316). On a Saturday afternoon, Nico comes home after Ada hasn’t seen him all day. He has a wet mark on the front of his pants, and though he tries to tell Ada he spilled water on himself while at the Lowells’, she can smell urine. He hasn’t had an accident since he was four, so Ada is concerned. He says he just held it too long and makes her promise not to tell anyone. She wishes he would talk to her and that they’d never moved to Long Island.

Ada works on her math; her new teacher assigns much more homework than her old teacher. She goes downstairs to get a glass of water and sees Nico disappear into the little room under the stairs. She confronts him, and he calls it his clubhouse. He tries to not let her in, saying girls aren’t allowed, but eventually lets her inside. Ada thinks the room is dirty and cramped, but Nico tells her to leave if she doesn’t like it. She stays with him and begins to cry, worried about him. That’s when Enzo and Millie find them and ban them from the clubhouse, which relieves Ada.

At school, Gabe leaves Ada alone after Enzo’s warning. However, another kid named Hunter starts to take an interest in Ada. During library time, while Ada reads her book, Hunter asks her on a date. When Ada says she isn’t allowed to date, he continues to harass her. She thinks about the knife in her pocket, but instead goes to the bathroom and reads her book while sitting on the toilet in peace.

Ada doesn’t want to go on the beach trip with the family, as she dislikes the sand on her skin. Millie feels the same way, but the family hasn’t taken a trip together in a while. She promises Ada can bring a book to read, so Ada agrees to go. Ada asks Millie what to do if a boy is being mean; Millie advises Ada to ignore it, and, if that doesn’t work, to use her words. Ada contrasts her mother, who thinks she should rely on words, with her father, who gave her a knife.

At the beach, Ada notices that Nico refuses to talk to Mr. Lowell. She finds it odd, given that Nico spends so much time at the Lowells’ house. When she asks Nico about it, he tells her rudely to mind her own business. When they go swimming, Ada overhears Suzette threatening Nico. Ada doesn’t know what the threats are about it, but the situation enrages her. She grabs Suzette’s leg and drags her underwater. Enzo saves Suzette from drowning.

Step 5 of Ada’s guide is “Find out the Truth” (330). Ada is miserable, and she knows she’ll hate Long Island forever. She doesn’t have any true friends, and Hunter continues to bother her. One night, as Ada wonders what is going on between the Lowells and Nico, Nico knocks on her door with a sleeping bag and asks to sleep in her room. She lets him in, but after they say goodnight, Nico starts sobbing. Ada comforts him as he tells her everything.

Nico makes Ada promise not to tell anyone what he tells her. He then shares what has been going on at the Lowells.

When he first went over, he was just cleaning, until he discovered a small room full of toys under the stairs while vacuuming. Nico began playing with the toys and broke a Transformers truck. Then, Mr. Lowell discovered him. Mr. Lowell told Nico the truck was rare and expensive, and that Nico now owed even more money for the broken truck and broken window. Mr. Lowell then made Nico play with toys that Mr. Lowell was designing, filming Nico and keeping him locked in the room while he played. One day, Nico needed to use the bathroom, but Mr. Lowell refused to let him out, so Nico wet his pants. Mr. Lowell mocked Nico, threatening to tell Nico’s friends.

When Suzette discovered what was going on, she made Mr. Lowell stop having Nico over. However, Mr. Lowell forced Nico to keep coming over in secret, telling Nico that Nico’s family would have no money to pay him back and would become unhoused. When that didn’t work, Mr. Lowell threatened to murder Nico’s family.

Ada promises that Enzo is stronger than Mr. Lowell, but Nico is still scared. He again makes Ada promise not to tell their parents. Ada agrees but decides someone needs to tell Mr. Lowell that Nico is never coming over again.

Step 6 of Ada’s guide is “Stand Up for Your Little Brother” (337). Ada goes over to the Lowells’ house with the pocketknife in her pocket. She sneaks in through the backyard, the same way she’s seen Enzo go over to work on the landscaping. She goes to the small room and pushes the door open.

Inside the room, Ada sees all the toys that initially attracted Nico. She also sees a child-sized bed in the corner. She looks at the quilt atop the bed, then pulls it back and sees a horrible bloodstain on the sheets. She then hears Mr. Lowell enter the room.

Mr. Lowell asks her what she’s doing in his house, but Ada struggles to respond because she’s afraid. He tells her that she shouldn’t have pulled back the quilt and asks if her parents know she’s there. Ada says yes, but Mr. Lowell says he can tell she’s lying; she can see that he’s not going to let her leave.

Ada takes out her knife, stabs him in the stomach, and twists, just like Enzo showed her. Mr. Lowell screams, and Ada runs home. She thinks Mr. Lowell is chasing her, but it’s actually Nico. Nico sees the bloody knife in her hand and the blood splatter on her shirt. Though she tries to keep the truth from him, she breaks down and tells him that she stabbed Mr. Lowell and killed him. Nico doesn’t want Ada to end up in jail. No one saw her enter the house, so they agree to keep it secret.