In Chap­ter XXIX, the nar­ra­tive intro­duces Car­lene, a woman whose impos­ing pres­ence con­trasts with her petite appear­ance. She is depict­ed vivid­ly with big hair, teeth, and long fin­ger­nails, exud­ing an eccen­tric charm. As Lester pulls the big pink Bible bus into Tut­tle Ter­race Trail­er Park, Car­lene, clad in a satin robe, dis­plays a mix of sur­prise and annoy­ance at the sight of Lester and his pas­sen­gers.

Lester hes­i­tates as he informs the group to stay put, but Sam­son, a child need­ing the bath­room, prompts a series of com­i­cal yet tense events. Bob­bi, unex­pect­ed­ly vol­un­teer­ing to assist Sam­son, leads him to Carlene’s trail­er despite her ini­tial dis­missal of their request. Inside, the trail­er is dim and filled with a strange mix of moth­ball and can­dle scents, over­whelm­ing the chil­dren as they encounter Car­lene’s gaudy decor and clut­tered envi­ron­ment.

The ten­sion esca­lates as Car­lene con­fronts Lester over mon­ey, reject­ing his offer while angri­ly ques­tion­ing his motives. Their tense exchange is dis­rupt­ed when Carlene’s unex­pect­ed wrath leads to a chaot­ic scene where snacks are thrown and the atmos­phere thick­ens with frayed tem­pers. This moment reveals dark­er under­tones of their rela­tion­ship, par­tic­u­lar­ly how Lester feels cor­nered and belit­tled.

Lester final­ly explodes, assert­ing he won’t return to Car­lene or com­ply with her demands. The silence that fol­lows sig­ni­fies a tense shift in pow­er dynam­ics. How­ev­er, this moment of con­fronta­tion is shat­tered when Car­lene real­izes the chil­dren are the miss­ing kids from the news, spark­ing imme­di­ate con­cern and prompt­ing her to call the police.

In a fran­tic rush, the chil­dren instinc­tive­ly ral­ly to pre­vent Lester’s arrest, push­ing him back to the bus. Their des­per­ate escape from Carlene’s trail­er is dri­ven by their urgency to reach Sali­na, ampli­fy­ing the chap­ter’s ten­sion. The group is left anx­ious­ly watch­ing for signs of the police as they depart, under­scor­ing the stakes of their predica­ment. The chap­ter con­cludes with a chill­ing rev­e­la­tion as the pro­tag­o­nist sud­den­ly real­izes the absence of Sam­son, height­en­ing the sense of urgency and fear for his safe­ty.