Signal Fires

Theo drives his motorbike through the snow, towards Avalon. He arrives at his childhood home in the early morning. Sarah is awake, worried but grateful to see Theo. The idea of their mother lost in the snow is unbearable. They drive Ben’s car around the neighborhood, searching for Mimi. They don’t know where to look because Mimi has become a shell of her former self. When they return home, Ben gets up, not yet aware that his wife has disappeared.

Due to his intense workout on the rowing machine, Shenkman sleeps deeply enough to dream of his childhood. In his dreams, he revisits his childhood home in New Jersey, where he wanted to grow up to be a baseball player. He wakes up early in the morning before his alarm clock, deeply aware that he has become as average a man as his father, the very fate he has wanted to avoid. Shenkman decides to check on his son Waldo. He likes watching Waldo sleep because it allows him to forget about his own coarse behavior. But when he gets to Waldo’s room, he discovers that Waldo is gone.

As Ben prepares coffee, he takes in the house that will no longer be his. The house is full of memories of his marriage and life with his children. He recalls the time he shared with Mimi before her Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Because Ben believes this life is more of a loop than a linear line, he takes comfort in the idea that the Wilfs will always live in this house, in a metaphorical yet real way.

Waldo admires the morning after the winter solstice. He already misses home, but is afraid of what will happen if his father finds him. He checks on Mimi, ensuring that the hat, gloves, and socks he gave her are still on. She’s snoring peacefully.

Sarah imagines her life as chapters in a book. She began her book by being an admirable teenager. Now, as an adult, she believes she’s in the middle of her book. However, this middle part is more chaotic than she predicted. The affair partner whom Sarah stood up is texting her threatening messages about the pictures he has of her. She wants to talk to her therapist, but it’s too early in the morning to get in touch with him. She recalls her affair partner filming their sex while she was tied up, asking to be punished. Sarah imagines her husband Peter receiving the pictures, and feels deep shame. But now, she has to push away this concern and tell her father that his wife is missing.

Mimi wakes up next to a young boy (Waldo) whom she believes to be Theo. She has yet to find Sarah but assumes she is at sports practice. She doesn’t worry as much about Sarah because she knows her eldest can fend for herself, while Theo needs nurturing. Waldo calls Mimi “lady” and tells her that he’s scared. He opens the Star Walk app to look at the stars; the background song puts Mimi to sleep.

In 2020, Waldo is forced back home after two and a half years at Berkely, and applies for virtual internships because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He misses his mother Alice, who died from cancer. His father Shenkman has recently been furloughed from his job, and Waldo is surprised by how soft his father has become since then. He still studies the stars, comforting himself with the knowledge of the sky. He writes a reminder to himself to call Dr. Wilf. Ben moved away when Waldo was a child, but reached out to Waldo when, during freshman year, Alice got sick. He struck up a correspondence with Waldo, but they don’t meet—even though for a while at Berkely, Waldo was close to Los Angeles, where Ben lives with his daughter. Waldo vaguely remembers Sarah from the time she tearfully held the body of an old woman whom he once spent a cold night with (Mimi).

Waldo logs into Zoom for his virtual class when his father Shenkman asks him for a moment of his time. He has a hard time reconciling this new version of his father with memories of his angry father. Shenkman tells Waldo that he needs to sell the house. Waldo nods; despite his mother hiring many therapists after the night he ran away, he still has a hard time communicating. Even as a child, Waldo knew he didn’t need therapy. Now, as a brilliant student, he is celebrated for his intellect instead of being shamed for his perceived difference. He’s already been recruited for graduate school at MIT, Harvard, and Stanford. Shenkman cries, which alarms Waldo. He tells Waldo that he will use the money from selling the house to buy a condo in Sarasota, Florida, where there will always be a room for Waldo—though Waldo has no intentions of visiting his father in Florida. Waldo sends a text to Dr. Wilf, asking if he can come visit despite the pandemic.

Ben is horrified at his wife’s disappearance and angry with his children for not waking him earlier. They drive around looking for Mimi. As they drive around, Ben spots Waldo’s parents driving, looking similarly worried. Ben “feels utterly powerless—an unfamiliar feeling” (148). He receives a call from the nursing home, informing him that they were able to trace Mimi from her tracking bracelet, though at some point, she removed it. Her last known location was on the parkway by the mall.

Alice and Shenkman drive around searching for Waldo. Alice is livid, and Shenkman knows she thinks the disappearance is his fault. Shenkman feels “He doesn’t deserve his magical son” (150), and regrets not downloading a tracker app on the iPad. He sees his neighbor Ben driving around, looking worn down. Suddenly, Alice declares that she wants a divorce. Shenkman gets a call from fellow rower Lindgren, whom Waldo emailed his location (Play Heaven) after finding his father’s email through the iPad.

Waldo is desperate for help because the old woman (Mimi) is dead. He has little battery left on the iPad, so he opens his father’s email app and emails the last person his father messaged, asking for help.

Sarah is worried about her mother Mimi, but also terrified about her affair partner’s pictures of her being leaked. Though she’s worried about her mother, she admits to herself that she grieved her long ago, when Mimi’s Alzheimer’s made her unrecognizable. The car fishtails in the snow and won’t drive further. The Wilfs abandon the car on the side of the road and walk towards the mall. Theo spots a figure outside Play Heaven. The first person they see is Waldo, who recognizes Ben. Then, they see a heap of clothing next to Waldo—Mimi. Sarah cries over her dead body.

Shenkman drives to Play Heaven because it’s the only store at the mall that Waldo knows. He rushes to his son, who is with a stranger (Theo). Shenkman accuses Theo of kidnapping his son, but the man stammers towards the store. Waldo tells Shenkman about the old woman and Dr. Wilf. Confused, Shenkman and Alice follow Waldo through the door. Mimi is dead, Sarah is calling 911, and Theo introduces himself as Mimi’s son. Waldo tells Ben that he tried to help Mimi, and Ben kindly tells him that he knows he did a good job. Ben wants to know what happened, and Waldo tells him about showing Mimi the same constellations he showed Ben. Shenkman is confused by Ben and Waldo’s bond, but no longer has the capacity to get angry about Star Walk.

Back in the car and reunited with her son, Alice wishes she could take back what she said about divorcing Shenkman. She wants to keep her family intact. Waldo asks his father if he truly helped the old woman (Mimi), and Shenkman assures him that he did. Shenkman tells Waldo about how Ben helped deliver him in their kitchen. This makes sense to Waldo because he sees the Wilfs and the Shenkmans as interconnected, like a galactic supercluster.

On the drive home, Alice notices her neighborhood for the first time. She is surprised that she never thought about all the other lives going on around her. She wonders why they never invited the Wilfs over for dinner, why they avoided them after Ben helped deliver Waldo. Alice decides to make some changes: She wants to quit her job to devote more time to getting Waldo therapy, and wants to help Ben in some way. When the Shenkmans pull up to their house, Alice sees moving trucks outside of the Wilf house. In other words, it’s too late to develop a relationship with Ben.