In Chap­ter III, the nar­ra­tor grap­ples with the absence of their moth­er and the arrival of Miss Rose­mary, who, despite her best inten­tions, can­not fill that void. Miss Rose­mary arrives with her two younger chil­dren, Rober­ta and Will Junior, aim­ing to keep the nar­ra­tor and their broth­er, Sam­son, com­pa­ny. How­ev­er, the sib­lings are less than enthu­si­as­tic about this arrange­ment since they don’t have a tele­vi­sion for enter­tain­ment and are reluc­tant to engage with their guests.

As they enter the room, they find Bob­bi, Miss Rose­mary’s six­teen-year-old daugh­ter, express­ing her dis­dain for being at the house. Bob­bi’s behav­ior is dis­mis­sive, as she rum­mages through their moth­er’s unfin­ished art­work and shows lit­tle empa­thy toward the fam­i­ly’s sit­u­a­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly since their father is in the hos­pi­tal. Will Junior, Bob­bi’s younger broth­er, tries to cor­rect her behav­ior, urg­ing her to be respect­ful in light of their father’s cir­cum­stances.

Bob­bi’s teenage antics are on dis­play as she com­plains and dra­mat­i­cal­ly reclines on the sofa, adorned with eye shad­ow and a pierced eye­brow, which intrigues the nar­ra­tor regard­ing Miss Rose­mary’s par­ent­ing deci­sions. Will Junior, who is well-groomed and appears more solemn, attempts to con­nect with the nar­ra­tor and Sam­son, acknowl­edg­ing their father’s ill­ness and express­ing his hopes for recov­ery. While Will Junior’s inten­tions seem kind, the nar­ra­tor feels uncom­fort­able, caught between grat­i­tude and a sense of shame for not hav­ing con­sid­ered pray­ing for their father.

As the chap­ter unfolds, Sam­son retreats with his deceased pet tur­tle, under­scor­ing his emo­tion­al vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty dur­ing this tumul­tuous time. Will Junior’s efforts to com­fort the nar­ra­tor with the men­tion of food, specif­i­cal­ly meat­loaf pre­pared by their moth­er, fall flat, reveal­ing the narrator’s real­iza­tion that food can­not mend the deep­er emo­tion­al wounds they are expe­ri­enc­ing. Thus, the dynam­ics of the vis­it reflect the com­plex­i­ties of cop­ing with loss, the dis­com­fort of forced inter­ac­tions, and the vary­ing degrees of empa­thy in a chal­leng­ing fam­i­ly sit­u­a­tion.