**This blog contains adult language.**
Warning: Spoilers Ahead!!! This is a recap blog which means I read the book and tell you everything that happens so you don't have to read it yourself. Please do not continue to read if you don't want to know who the “bad guy” is.
From the Back of the Book: He's back. Jenny's last baby-sitting job nearly killed her – for real. But she's a survivor. She's getting over it. The crazy guy who was after her is gone. She's even got a new baby-sitting job. Then the phone rings. When she answers, she hears a familiar voice. A voice from the past...from the grave...Hi, Babes, I'm back.
This book was published in 1991 and this is my first time reading it. I think. It's the sequel to TheBabysitter which I recapped awhile back. But in case you don't want to reread the entire thing, I'll help you out. Jenny was babysitting for the Hagens. A lot of creepy stuff happened. Babysitters were being beaten up all over town. Jenny started dating class clown Chuck. The bad guy turned out to be Mr Hagen. He tried to kill Jenny but she dodged him and he went over a cliff instead. There you go.
We begin with our protagonist Jenny recapping book one for us and her therapist, but since I just did that, we'll move on. She's having nightmares and feels a lot of guilt over what happened. Even though Mr Hagen was a bad guy who was definitely going to kill her, she feels bad that little Donny lost his dad. She also tells us that she stopped dating Chuck because he could never be serious and she's just not in a joking mood these days.
The therapist, Dr S, cuts her off before she can go into detail about her nightmares. He ejects the tape of her session and tells her that time is up. Before she leaves, she asks his advice about taking a new babysitting job. Even though the idea scares her, she needs the money and feels like she should try to get over it. He tells her to do what she feels is best and she decides to take the job. It's two days and two nights a week for a 10-year-old named Eli.
Jenny reminds us that she has a wild imagination and people are never sure when to believe her. Sometimes she isn't sure when to believe herself. It's okay, Jenny, you're in a Point Horror. No one would have believed you until the very end even if you'd been the least imaginative person on the planet. She leaves the therapist's office and is surprised to see it's dark because of an impending storm. As she walks home, she becomes aware of someone following her. Suddenly she's grabbed from behind by a menacing attacker.
{{{GASP}}}
LOLZ
It's just Chuck. Apparently Jenny's mom let him know where to find her. Her mom obviously didn't learn her lesson in the first book and still gives out Jenny's location to anyone who asks. Jenny tells him to shove off and walks away but he grabs her again. I'm not liking all this grabbing, Stine. She tells him to leave her alone and stop following her around. He says he doesn't want to lose her but she says the events of the last book changed her and she just isn't into him anymore. He gets mad and starts shouting that he won't accept that and it's honestly a little scary. Jenny manages to jump on the bus when it stops nearby and leaves Chuck yelling in the street.
Stine slips a dream into the middle of the chapter to fool us into thinking it's real. Jenny dreams she's at the rock quarry where Mr Hagen died. She watches as he pulls himself up over the edge all broken and bloody. When she screams, her mom wakes her up.
We jump ahead an unknown number of days to Jenny's first day babysitting at the Wexner's. She's happy to see that it's a nice house and not run down like the Hagen's house had been. It makes it seem less scary. Mr W greets her and tells her that Eli is upstairs probably building something. Apparently he's “mechanical” and “not like the other boys”, much to his father's dismay. Mrs W appears and starts to throw word salad at Jenny about being firm with Eli but not too firm. She says “if you know what I mean” or “you see” at the end of every fucking sentence and I think Jenny should charge her double just to have to listen to it.
I wish I could.
The parents leave and Jenny heads upstairs to find Eli. He's in his room typing away on a computer when she enters and he ignores her for several minutes before turning around to say hi. He's a little bitter because he feels old enough to be home without a babysitter but he's civil. He tells Jenny he built his computer from a kit and goes into detail about some of the components. It's lost on Jenny because she only uses a computer to do her homework.
You don't even play Oregon Trail, Jenny? Come on. We all played Oregon Trail on the school computers. It was the bright spot of the week.
Eli tells her that she might as well go home because he's a genius and he can definitely take care of himself. He says his IQ is 180 and asks Jenny what hers is. When she tells him she doesn't know, he grabs her arm tightly and demands to know what her score is. She tells him that she's never been given an IQ test and the idea astounds him. He lets go of her and pulls a cardboard box out from under the work table. He tells her his parents don't know about what's inside and then he pulls out some kind of contraption. Jenny isn't sure what it is but says it's cool. He tells her it's a working phone. His parents think he's too young to have one in his room so he built one. She asks him who he calls on it and he gets quiet and says he doesn't have any friends to call.
Jenny encourages him to make friends because that's just super easy for everyone and Eli tells her he doesn't need human friends because he has something better. He produces another box and tells her to close her eyes and stick her hand inside. Yeah, no, kid. There's no way in hell that I'd ever do that. But Jenny does because she's not the brightest crayon in the box. It turns out to be a tarantula. Eli has three of them as pets.
We skip ahead to Jenny's next therapy session where she's telling Dr S all about her new job and Eli. She tells Dr S that Eli looked evil when he laughed at her for being afraid of the spiders. She says he liked her fear too much and she's worried that he's going to hurt her in some way. Dr S thinks she's reading too much into it but she's insistent that Eli is a little sadist who is going to filet her and serve her for dinner.
Jenny tells him that she scolded Eli for scaring her and he was so mad at her that he didn't speak to her for the rest of the night. He stayed in his room and went to sleep sometime before 10:30 when she went to check on him. When she told his parents about the events of the night, they were more worried that Eli would be upset with her than upset with him about scaring her. Apparently he holds a grudge. They told her that she should really try to stay on his good side or else things will be hard. Jenny is pissed that he didn't get punished in any way.
The receptionist at the therapist's office is an odd woman named Miss Gurney. She has a scratchy, deep voice and is always giving Jenny awkward compliments about her clothes or hair. After her appointment, Miss Gurney gives her an envelope with the bill and then says that “Dr Gurney is such a wonderful man”. She quickly corrects herself to Dr S and then says she used to be a patient of his.
So I know we haven't gotten to any shenanigan's yet but I'm hella suspicious of both these people.
Odds that Dr S is the bad guy: 45%
Odds that Miss Gurney is the bad guy” 45%
Odds someone else is the bad guy: 10%
Jenny meets up afterwards with her friends Claire and Rick for pizza. Don't feel bad if you don't remember them from the first book because they didn't exist. Jenny made these friends post-Hagen. Jenny likes Claire because she's so serious and post-Hagen Jenny needs more of that in her life. They talk and it's all boring so I won't make you read it.
After lunch, Jenny wanders around the mall alone. She goes into the music store and runs into a punk/emo guy named Cal who is new to town and starting at her school in the fall. She's a little uncomfortable with him and tries to leave but he calls after her, asking her to go to a party with him on Saturday night. Stine just ends that part right there without telling us whether she agrees to go or not.
We skip to Friday night at the Wexner's. Mr and Mrs are running late and everyone is irritable. Mrs W says that Eli drove her crazy all day and encourages Jenny to “go with the flow” and not upset him or her night is going to be just as awful. Mr W tells his wife that she's too hard on Eli and Mrs W tells her husband that he always takes Eli's side no matter what. It's an awkward moment for poor Jenny who just has to stand there watching them fight.
When they finally leave, Jenny goes upstairs to find Eli watching a campy horror movie in his room. She's disturbed because he laughs at it instead of being scared. I mean, not all of us are movie wimps, Jenny. I also laugh at horror movies and I'm not.....
Um.....
Well....
Let's just move on. Jenny doesn't want to watch the horror movie but Eli says he had a bad day and all he wants to do is sit there and watch an ax murderer kill a bunch of teenagers. I relate to Eli. Jenny goes back downstairs because she can't handle the gore. Not long after she settles into a chair with a magazine, the phone rings. A voice says “Hi, Babes, I'm back.” Jenny is terrified because 'Babes' is what Mr Hagen used to call her when he made creepy phone calls to her. She spirals for a bit, lost in memories and flashbacks. Suddenly she hears movement in the kitchen and knows she's about to die.
{{{GASP}}}
LOLZ
It's just Mr W. He was so busy fighting with his wife when they left that he forgot the tickets to the theater. Jenny decides to go check up on Eli and finds him feeding his spiders. She asks if the movie is over and he says he turned it off before the end because he hates it when they kill the bad guy. She thinks he's “twisted” and insists that it's time for him to go to bed. He asks if he can read for awhile and she freaks out again when she finds out he's reading a Stephen King book.
Seriously, Jenny, lots of us grew up watching horror movies and reading Stephen King and we turned out normal.
Well....
Erm.....
Let's just move on. Mr and Mrs W get home at midnight and offer to drive Jenny home but she lives two blocks away so she decides to walk. Along the way she gets grabbed by a murderer who ( GASP/LOLZ) turns out to be Chuck. Honestly, Chuck scares me more than anyone else so far in this book. Again, Jenny's mother told him where Jenny would be and he just stalked the house until she came out. He grabs her so hard he hurts her and demands an explanation of why she dumped him. She tells him that she just wanted to walk away from everything that reminded her of the Hagens and unfortunately he was part of that book. He gets super mad and throws her down on the sidewalk. He tells her that she'll be sorry and then he runs off to his car.
Not feeling good about Chuck here, Stine.
Jenny makes it home and gets ready for bed. Her phone rings and she assumes it's Chuck but it's Eli. He tells her that he's calling from the phone he made and he's super excited that it actually works. She's tells him to go to bed and he giggles and says goodnight.
We skip to the party so Jenny must have decided to go. Everyone at the party is making out and Jenny and Cal decide to leave. He's embarrassed that he took her on such a lame date but she reassures him that she's just happy to be spending time with him. I don't know why. He constantly goes from moody to childish to angry and then back to moody. He's worse than Chuck. I'm not sure Stine can write a good male love interest.
They decide to go skating. Cal says he's had a hard life and has never gone skating. I'm not sure what those two things have to do with each other. I had a hard life and I practically lived in roller skates. They go to the rink and have a good time. After the date, Cal walks Jenny to her front door and gives her a kiss. She hears the bush beside the porch rustle and suddenly a dark figure emerges. Cal yells and gives chase but he doesn't catch the person. Jenny thinks it's Mr Hagen at first but then figures it was probably Chuck.
While she's getting ready for bed, her phone rings. She assumes it's Eli again but it's a creeper. He calls her “Babes” again and says “company's coming” just like Hagen used to do.
It's definitely either the shrink or his receptionist. She's definitely talked about the phone calls in her therapy sessions and the weird receptionist is either eavesdropping or listening to the session tapes. It's one of those two for sure.
The next chapter is a nightmare about Mr Hagen coming back to life and grabbing Jenny in a dark parking lot. She tells Dr S all about the nightmare and the phone calls in their next session. He implies that the calls are her imagination because of the trauma she's been through and then asks her if she thinks Cal is making them. Um.....how can it be both? I'm confused. He offers her an extra session and then prescribes her some sleeping pills. As she's leaving, she sticks her hand in her bag and finds a dead tarantula.
Jenny immediately goes home to call the Wexner's. I'm not sure if she's intending to quit or just wants them to know that Eli put a dead spider in her bag. They're not home and she screams in frustration. She's supposed to be meeting Claire and Rick to play tennis so she grabs her stuff and heads outside. Cal is just walking up and she asks him if he wants to come play too. He says he's never played but he's willing to give it a try.
Rick seems mad to see Cal and does his best to antagonize him – arguing about balls being out, aiming the ball directly for Cal's head, etc. Cal doesn't react at first but slowly he starts to get mad. A fight nearly breaks out but Cal steps back. Claire is pissed and tells Rick that she's going home. Jenny follows suit, confused and upset at Rick's behavior. Cal apologizes to Jenny for rising to Rick's bait but she knows he was heavily provoked. He tells her that he got a job in the food court at the mall selling ice cream. She promises to come see him sometime and they part ways.
We skip ahead to Jenny's next babysitting day. She tells Mrs W about the tarantula in her bag. They go upstairs to ask Eli about it but he points out that all three of his pets are alive and well. He's hurt that she accused him of such a nasty trick and bursts into tears. Jenny apologizes to him but still thinks he put a dead spider in her bag.
Mrs W leaves and Jenny sulks for a bit. She's mad that Mrs W didn't seem to care about the dead spider and mad that Eli is upset about being accused of something Jenny is still sure he actually did. Suddenly there's a lot of crashing from upstairs and Jenny runs to find Eli's room trashed and him lying unconscious and bleeding on his floor.
{{{GASP}}}
LOLZ
He's fine. It was fake blood. Jenny's not fine though. I'm just going to quote this.
“She wanted to hit him. She wanted to make him cry, make him bleed. She hated him!”
Jenny does not need to be a babysitter, y'all. She should probably have a lot more therapy before she works with children.
Eli justifies himself by saying she accused him of playing a joke so he decided to fulfill her prophecy. The two of them spend the day playing Monopoly and Jenny notes that Eli seems extra clingy today. It's odd because he usually spends all his time in his room. They're in the middle of their game when the phone rings. It's Chuck. I have no idea how he got the number. Even odds between the phone book and Jenny's mom. Jenny tells him that she doesn't want to talk to him and yells at him never to call her again.
After dinner, Eli goes up to his room to use his computer, finally giving Jenny a moment alone. She's sitting in the chair wondering who is making the creepy phone calls when someone knocks at the door. It's Rick and Claire. Jenny's mom told them the address because of course she did. Eli isn't amused when he hears them come in. He shows up on the stairs and tells them they have to leave. Jenny “shrilly” demands to know why her friends aren't welcome and I'm shocked it took Stine this long to use that word.
Also, Jenny, you know why you shouldn't have friends there. You haven't cleared it with the Wexner's and your attention should be on Eli.
Claire calms Eli down and asks if she can see his room. After they go upstairs, Rick makes a move on Jenny. She's startled and firmly friend zones him. Suddenly they hear Eli yelling at Claire not to touch something and then there's a huge crash. Claire comes tumbling down the stairs and lands at the bottom, unconscious. Jenny looks up to see Eli standing at the top, grinning.
We immediately hop to Jenny's next therapy session where she's telling Dr S all about the incident. Claire is okay. She pulled a muscle in her shoulder and her head hurt but she's fine. Eli said Claire slipped down the stairs but Claire thinks she was pushed. Dr S thinks Jenny is being over dramatic as usual because little boys don't try to kill people.
Dr S clearly needs to listen to a few more true crime podcasts.
We skip ahead to Jenny's next time at the Wexner's. Mr W scolds her gently about having friends over without permission and Jenny says it won't happen again. Eli comes bounding up to give Jenny a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. It's odd behavior but his dad seems to think it's cute.
Eli goes up to his room and Jenny settles in downstairs. The phone rings and it's the voice again, telling her that “company's coming”. Jenny freaks out and goes upstairs to check on Eli. She hears whispering from inside his room and decides that the bad guy is in the house somehow. She screws up her courage and bursts into the room, scaring the crap out of Eli who is on his handmade phone. She asks him what he's doing and he says he's making prank calls to some of the kids at school. She asks if he just called her and he says he didn't. Then he asks her to tell him about her last babysitting job.
I guess we're supposed to be suspicious of little Eli. I'm not that stupid, Stine.
We skip ahead. I have no idea what day it is or what time it is. Jenny is at the mall to pick up Cal. She gets out of her car and walks to their pre-determined meeting place in the back but he's not there. Suddenly she hears footsteps and she takes off running. She's sure the bad guy is chasing her but it turns out to be Dr S who is oddly wet and muddy, carrying a damp brown paper bag of groceries.
The mall has a grocery store?
Jenny asks him what he's doing in that particular area and he says he's been walking around looking for his car. He forgot where he parked it. I guess it might be reasonable except Jenny told us that this was the back of the mall where the freight comes in and where all the dumpsters are. Why would he be looking for his car there? He asks if she's meeting someone and she points out Cal who is walking up. Dr S says he sees his car in the distance and takes off before Cal reaches them.
Cal can tell Jenny's upset and he suggests going somewhere to talk. They go to Wendy's and over fries, Jenny tells him the entirety of the first book. As she's talking, she decides that she's solved the mystery. She knows who is tormenting her but she doesn't know why. She tells Cal that she's sure Dr S is the bad guy.
So......
Odds Dr S is the bad guy: 20%
Odds the secretary is the bad guy: 80%
I just can't go with Jenny's gut here. She's not reliable.
Cal is doubtful. He asks why Dr S would be making odd phone calls and putting dead spiders in her bag. Jenny can't really answer that so she just declares he's crazy.
Sigh.
I can't tell you how much I hate that explanation for motive.
Cal continues to play devil's advocate and Jenny gets frustrated. She's determined to prove she's right, so she asks Cal to help her set a trap.
You know, Cal's had a complete personality shift in the last few chapters. He went from throwing fits and getting irrationally angry over the smallest thing to being calm, supportive and rational. It's like Stine forgot who he was. Or Stine just gave up on trying to make him feel like a suspect. Even odds really. I like this Cal much better and I hope he stays for the rest of the book.
The next time Jenny goes in for an appointment, she tells Dr S that she's going to go back to the quarry at night to try to face her fears. She says that maybe it will prove to her that there's no threat and she can finally leave the past behind her. Dr S says he thinks she just needs time to get over things and that she doesn't have to do something so drastic. She insists that it will help her and he gives up trying to talk her out of it. She's smug, thinking her trap has worked and that he'll definitely come out to the quarry to try to kill her.
We skip to the next time Jenny babysits. This book's timeline is so disorienting. I never have any idea how much time is passing. It could be the same day, it could be weeks later. There's no way to know and I hate it. Jenny is nervous the entire time and doesn't pay much attention to Eli. When she goes to leave, he hugs her again and she thinks that he's worried he'll never see her again. I have no idea why he'd be worried about that but whatevs, Jenny.
Later that night, Cal drives Jenny out to the quarry. They don't have much of a plan. Jenny's just going to stand out there and wait for Dr S to show up. When he does, she'll confront him and then Cal will jump out and scare him off. When Dr S realizes he's been exposed, he'll stop bugging Jenny and everything will be fine. It's.....not a great plan. Cal seems apprehensive, worried that Dr S might pose some kind of danger but Jenny tells him not to worry. Dr S is a therapist and therefore would never resort to physical violence.
What?
Damn Jenny's dumb.
I mean, I'm now 90% sure the bad guy is the secretary but still.
Maybe 95% sure. I should make it official. That's my job after all.
Odds Dr S is the bad guy: 5%
Odds the secretary is the bad guy: 95%
Jenny gets out and stands by the quarry while Cal hides nearby. She can see headlights and hear a car in the distance but it stops before it reaches the place where Jenny and Cal parked. She waits, sure Dr S is going to pop out at any second.
But it's the secretary.
Jenny asks Miss Gurney what she's doing there. Miss Gurney says that she's noticed the attention that Dr S gives Jenny and she wants Jenny to know that she can't have him. She's been listening to the tapes of Jenny's sessions and she knows everything about Jenny's life. She's jealous of the time Jenny spends with Dr S and how attentive Dr S is to her. She feels ignored.
I'm confused. Doesn't Dr S have other patients? Why would Miss Gurney be fixated on Jenny in particular? It doesn't make any sense, Stine. It would have made more sense if Miss Gurney was a relative of Mr Hagen's or something. Or if she'd been in love with Mr Hagen. This doesn't make any sense at all.
Miss Gurney tells Jenny that she's going to die so Dr S can't pay attention to her anymore. Jenny yells for Cal to help just as Miss Gurney starts to run toward her. Cal comes out of hiding and runs toward Miss Gurney who drops to the ground before Cal can make contact. Cal can't stop his momentum and he goes careening over the edge of the quarry and dies.
{{{GASP}}}
LOLZ
The quarry has been filled with water. Cal is wet but alive. He pulls himself up over the edge but before he can do anything, Miss Gurney tackles Jenny and they both go over the side. Miss Gurney holds Jenny underwater, determined to drown her but Cal manages to jump in and get her away. Jenny sees flashing red lights and hears Dr S screaming from above. He discovered the tapes missing, put two and two together, and called the police to meet him at the quarry. He tells Jenny – very illegally and unprofessionally I might add – that he treated Miss Gurney for jealous, violent behavior for years prior to her working for him. He thought she was cured so he gave her a job and she'd been doing really well. He has no idea why Miss Gurney fixated on Jenny either.
It wasn't exactly smart of him to give someone who has a history of violent behavior access to his vulnerable patients. I think Jenny should find a new therapist. Not only is this one dumb but he violates patient confidentiality.
The book ends with Miss Gurney getting arrested and Jenny kissing Cal. There's a third book in the series that I'll get to at some point. I wonder if Jenny will dump Cal before that one starts?
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