Happiness Falls

Investigating the office, John finds a bin labeled “EP,” which includes a letterboard and log of eight months of lessons in a new form of text-based communication therapy. Logging into a patient portal where the sessions have been recorded, they watch Anjeli ask Eugene a question about alternative energy sources; he uses the board to answer correctly, as well as to make a joke about Mia. While Mia acknowledges that they “should have been elated, or at least hopeful” (321) at Eugene’s ability to communicate, they feel devastated, both at the clear connection between Anjeli and Adam, as well as the fear that Eugene has been trapped without the ability to communicate for his whole life. Mia also realizes that if Eugene really can communicate, the fact that he hasn’t attempted to tell them about Adam’s disappearance is ominous.

In Korea, Mia was treated as a bah bo (which she translates as “idiot”) for being unable to speak Korean well. She uses the experience to justify why she and John don’t try to communicate with Eugene instantly in Anjeli’s office. Instead, they decide to watch the video of Eugene’s introductory session first. In it, Anjeli explains how her method differs from others, and expresses confidence in Eugene’s ability to learn to type independently, and even go to college if he does so. She asks him to decide if he wants to try, and he spells Y-E-S.

Shannon calls with the news that Detective Janus is on her way to their house, and tells the family they need to get home.

The police have gotten a hit on Adam’s ATM card, and have a woman and a man matching Anjeli and Adam’s descriptions in custody. However, the mug shots reveal a young couple who claim to have found Adam’s wallet in the woods. Detective Janus tells them that the wallet’s location means an expanded search, and asks them to reach out to enlist volunteers. Mia is buoyed, and then quickly annoyed by halfhearted support for the search on social media.

Hannah receives a voicemail from the COVID Contact Tracing Team—they have quarantine instructions since Eugene had an exposure four days earlier.

Mia’s grandmother Harmonee had a “pessimistic kind of optimism” (249), in which she would list worse scenarios in response to any negative event. Harmonee’s youth was incredibly difficult; she and her younger sister avoided the bomb blast that killed the rest of their family only because they were inside being raped by soldiers.

Mia connects the lesson she learned from Harmonee’s experiences about how “history blends individual experiences into smooth, homogenized narratives” (249) to the COVID-19 phone call. The health department provides no information about the exposure, but tells them Eugene needs to quarantine for 14 days, and that he is not required to attend his hearing. John worked at Henry’s House on the day of the exposure, but he did not receive an exposure notification, so Eugene’s exposure must have happened elsewhere.

Eugene’s COVID-19 exposure was from a session with Anjeli that has not been uploaded to the portal. In the final installment of notebook page scans, Mia notices references to “E” for Eugene, and is alarmed by Adam’s stated intention of “broadening his experiments to more important family matters” (258). Shannon and a private investigator manage to find Anjeli, who has been hospitalized for COVID-19, via her fiancée, Zoe. Because Zoe has refused to give her number, Hannah, John, Mia, and Eugene drive around the hospital parking lot with a sign reading, “Do you know Anjeli Rapari?” (260), but no one responds.

After arriving home, Hannah, John, and Mia prepare to communicate with Eugene via letterboard. Mia worries that family’s longstanding belief that Eugene cannot make himself understood has caused in him a kind of PTSD, preventing communication. In a transcript of a session with Anjeli, Eugene discusses his father’s non-belief, his mother’s babying, John’s being nice but too much, and Mia thinking that “being smart is what matters and im stupid and worthless” (271), which she finds devastating but can’t entirely deny. Hannah apologizes to Eugene, and asks him if they can try to communicate. He tries, and seems frustrated when he is unable to say yes. She gives him the opportunity to say no, but he declines, which they take as a “no to the NO” (275).

Shannon calls—Anjeli’s fiancée called back and told her that Anjeli was on her way to the park to resolve a conflict between Eugene and Adam before becoming ill. The doorbell rings, revealing two police officers and Mia’s ex-boyfriend, Vic.

Vic drove from Ohio to help with the search when he heard about Adam, but couldn’t contact Mia because she’d blocked his number. In the park, a woman pepper sprayed him based on a misunderstanding clearly caused by her bias against him as a Black man. The police intervened and have brought him to the Parksons’ house.

Vic has something to show them he didn’t want the police to see: A birdwatcher recorded a video in which Adam yells for help and then screams, “Eugene nooooo” (282), before a flock of birds flies suddenly up from the cliff face.