Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief

Mr. and Mrs. McKenze return home from work around eight o’clock. They plan to spend the weekend in Big Falls. Marissa hopes to accompany them, but they ask her to stay home and watch Mikey. Marissa brings Sammy to her bedroom, where she cries over how her family never does anything together. She says that her parents pay more attention to their phones and their stocks than their children. Suddenly, Marissa screams because she sees “the teeny-tiniest spider on earth” (74), which Sammy kills for her. Marissa says that Sammy is lucky because her grandmother is always home, while Marissa barely sees her parents. This surprises Sammy because Marissa has two parents and an opulent house. Marissa explains that Sammy is her only friend because everyone else is only nice to her if they want to borrow money from her. Marissa falls asleep while Sammy ponders how her friend can have “everything in the whole wide world” except for what she most desires (75). Sammy gazes at the moon, wishing that she could hug Grams and explain everything.

The next morning, Sammy returns to Grams’s apartment, but her grandmother is nowhere to be found. The girl grows anxious because Grams has never been away like this, and she begins to imagine the hotel thief “tying Grams up and stuffing her in the closet” (79).