• Man’s pension is running low and they’ve fallen on hard times—they’d raised 7 kids already
• Narrator isn’t sure what his dad wants from him because he cannot help financially
• Dad says that she accuses him of stealing eyebrow pencils
• Doctors apparently cannot help the mother in question
o “I didn't want to bring up the word senility, but 1 realized that that was what he was getting at.”
• Dad says: “she cried all night. By three in the morning, I started beating her. I'm ashamed to say it, but I beat her."”
• They decide to have her committed
• “"He steals my eyebrow pencils," she said. "No, he doesn't," I said savagely”
• Narrator is angry and sorry for both parents
• Eyebrow pencils are in the toolbox