Happiness Falls

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes references to bullying, rape, and racism.

Narrator Mia Parkson admits that they didn’t report her father as missing to the police immediately, then reflects on the Parksons’ “typical-adjacent” and “indubitably, inherently atypical” (4) family dynamic.

The novel then flashes back to the events of the day when Adam went missing. Mia is home from university during COVID-19 quarantine. Preoccupied with the end of her relationship with Vic, her boyfriend of more than six months, Mia looks out the window to see her 14-year-old brother Eugene running through their neighborhood, back from a walk with Adam. Proud to see him running, which he isn’t usually able to do, Mia goes to hug him, but he pushes her to the ground. While she is surprised that her father isn’t with him, and although Eugene is “jumping, accompanied by his high pitched vocals” (10), repetitive motion he uses to de-stress, Mia isn’t overly concerned. With her eyes closed, she hears footsteps come down the driveway, assumes it’s her father, and then falls asleep on the lawn.