In this chap­ter of *Moth­er Night*, the nar­ra­tor reflects on the state of his attic, which has been trans­formed into a makeshift tent by the jan­i­tor. The door is miss­ing, and a sign crude­ly declares, “Nobody and noth­ing inside.” The atmos­phere inside is dark, illu­mi­nat­ed only by dim light fil­ter­ing through bro­ken win­dows. Paper and rags fill the shat­tered panes, cre­at­ing an eerie and des­o­late ambi­ence.

The nar­ra­tor glances out at a near­by park, rem­i­nisc­ing about the inno­cence of child­hood play and wish­ing for some­one to join him in a play­ful cry. With­in this soli­tude, he hears a rus­tle that turns out to be Bernard B. O’Hare, a man from his past who had once arrest­ed him in Ger­many. O’Hare, now in a frayed Amer­i­can Legion uni­form and vis­i­bly intox­i­cat­ed, per­ceives him­self as a hero­ic fig­ure con­fronting evil, view­ing the nar­ra­tor as a drag­on. Their reunion is fraught with ten­sion, as O’Hare appears intent on con­fronting the nar­ra­tor about their past. He describes their meet­ing as pre­or­dained, as if fate had con­spired to bring them back togeth­er.

O’Hare rem­i­nisces about his life after the war, express­ing dis­il­lu­sion­ment with how his dreams crum­bled into mun­dane occu­pa­tions, from dia­per ser­vices to dis­patch­ing frozen cus­tard trucks. He recounts his expe­ri­ences of dis­ap­point­ment and con­fu­sion, won­der­ing about the mean­ing of life and his place in it. The nar­ra­tor responds sym­pa­thet­i­cal­ly, rec­og­niz­ing the futil­i­ty in O’Hare’s life choic­es but is cau­tious around him, sus­pect­ing that he may be armed.

O’Hare’s brava­do crum­bles as he deems the nar­ra­tor “pure evil.” This spurs a crit­i­cal turn­ing point, lead­ing to a phys­i­cal con­fronta­tion. The nar­ra­tor, armed with fire-tongs, demon­strates his readi­ness to defend him­self. He suc­cess­ful­ly inca­pac­i­tates O’Hare, who, now crip­pled and humil­i­at­ed, real­izes his expec­ta­tions of eas­i­ly sub­du­ing the nar­ra­tor were mis­guid­ed. After throw­ing O’Hare out, the nar­ra­tor reflects on the nature of hatred and evil, sug­gest­ing that true evil lies in mankind’s desire to hate unre­served­ly, often fueled by delu­sions of moral supe­ri­or­i­ty.

The chap­ter cul­mi­nates with O’Hare’s hol­low threats, while the nar­ra­tor dis­miss­es him—emphasizing the futil­i­ty and cycli­cal nature of hatred and vio­lence in the human con­di­tion. Through their encounter, deep themes of iden­ti­ty, moral­i­ty, dis­il­lu­sion­ment, and the com­plex­i­ty of human nature are explored.