Happiness Falls

Detective Janus sends a scan of the first page of Adam’s notebook, which includes a discussion of micro and macro happiness in relation to Eugene’s AS, and comparisons between John and Mia’s respective levels of joy. Detective Janus also relays two new pieces of information: Adam had transferred $20K from his IRA into a new checking account, and at around the same time he began exchanging frequent calls and texts with someone named Anjeli Rapari. Detective Janus plays a voicemail from Anjeli to Adam, in which she tells him she’s tired of sneaking around and he needs to tell his wife.

Though told to expect it, the family is surprised when a child protective services specialist comes to interview Eugene. Hannah refuses for Eugene to be interviewed alone, but sends John and Mia away; they eavesdrop through a nanny cam installed to surveil Eugene’s therapists in case of abuse.

Hannah, John, and Mia are upset when the CPS specialist announces that she focuses on text-based communication. Mia recalls their family’s experience of physically assisted writing (also called facilitated communication, a scientifically discredited intervention for nonverbal people in which a therapist maneuvers a patient’s hands on a keyboard or other writing device). Hannah found a facilitated communication therapist to help Eugene; initially skeptical, Hannah was eventually overjoyed by seeming success. However, Adam then tested the therapist using questions Eugene would know but she wouldn’t, and disproved the method, devastating Hannah.

Mia feared that her parents would divorce after the assisted writing incident. Instead, Hannah decided to return to work, and Adam became a stay-at-home dad.

The narrative returns to the present. The CPS specialist produces a letterboard. Despite Hannah’s insistence that Eugene doesn’t use them, the specialist and Detective Janus reveal that one was found in the envelope in Adam’s backpack. The specialist gives the letterboard to Eugene, but Hannah snatches it from him, so he stabs a pen toward his mother’s face. Eugene was attempting to spell out words, but Detective Janus views the movement as an attack. Janus grabs Eugene’s wrist; in response, he scratches her, so she puts Eugene in handcuffs. Mia is horrified that Janus and the specialist are looking at Eugene “like a wild animal, a threat to be neutralized” (119). Janus prepares to take Eugene to headquarters.

Hannah sends John and Mia to Henry’s House, Eugene’s therapy center, to find lawyer Shannon Haug. There, they meet two sympathetic women nicknamed “Groupie Moms” (124), or GMs, who are admirers of Adam. The women are friends with Susan, the woman from the park that morning, so Mia tries to glean information about the “horrible news.” The GMs reference a second opinion and family history, reminding Mia that Adam’s father’s died of Stage 4 prostate cancer in his 50s. Mia wonders if it’s possible that Adam died by suicide after a similar diagnosis.

As Shannon makes her way to the police station, John’s friend Kenny texts him a screenshot of their dad, “looking terrified and in pain” (132), with another figure in the corner of the image.

Incensed, John calls Kenny for more detail. The screenshot comes from a video taken by a neighbor with a penchant for “parent shaming on mommy blogs” (137). The neighbor filmed Adam, hoping to post the video as a critique of his parenting.

Mia receives more pages from Adam’s notebook, including case studies on relative happiness levels. She wonders whether obsession with happiness might result from the lack of it, connecting this with the idea the GMs suggested—that Adam might have been depressed.

They and their lawyer arrive at the police station and prepare for Eugene’s intake hearing.

While waiting outside during the hearing, Mia receives another page from the HQ notebook. Desperate to know whether she’s right about the Q standing for quotient, she sets off for the evidence room. Reading selections from the notebook in person, Mia finds that she was correct—Adam wrote about the importance of baseline and expectations in relation to happiness. He was interested in practical applications, such as, “Is it possible to manipulate happiness levels, to change your (or your family’s) mindset to maximize happiness and minimize sadness?” (153). The notebook also reveals records of experiments, including case studies of interactions with John and Mia. The last experiment date listed is the day of Adam’s disappearance.