Rock Paper Scissors

Adam takes over the narration in the second chapter. His tone is cynical, and he continually expresses irritation and impatience toward Amelia. Affirming the growing distance in their relationship, he says, “My wife says the same things lately, over and over, and her words always feel like a pinch or a slap. ‘I don't understand you’ irritates me the most, because what’s to understand? She likes animals more than she likes people; I prefer fiction. I suppose the real problems began when we started preferring those things to each other” (11). Adam is also cynical in his attitude toward institutions like the movie industry. Despite his attitude, he expresses that he’s quite good at placating and disarming others. He remarks that “charming people is part of my job” (12). His need to placate others is partly because he can’t recognize faces. Adam is unenthusiastic about the weekend, which he views as unnecessary and unpleasant.

He takes their bags from the car and they enter the chapel, which is cold inside and has rustic decor. One wall is lined with some 50 mirrors of odd shapes and sizes. Adam notices an antique bench covered with dust, implying that no one has been there in a long time. Amelia points out a child’s face drawn in the dust on the bench. As they look around the room, the doors slam shut behind them.

This chapter is a love letter written to Adam. Every year, his wife writes him a secret letter of which he’s unaware and which she never allows him to read. In this letter, written in 2007, she relates the story of their coming together and deciding to marry. She writes, “I confess that moving in together wasn’t exactly how I imagined. It’s harder to hide the darker side real you from someone you live with, and you did a better job of concealing all the clutter when I only came to visit” (18).

When they first came together, they had a serious argument when she found a copy of Adam’s unpublished screenplay, Rock Paper Scissors, and read it. While she admired the work, Adam considered her reading it without his permission intrusive.

The letter describes with relish the occasion when, having refused to take in a shelter dog, Adam surprised her by adopting the dog and having its nametag inscribed “WILL YOU MARRY ME” (20). She’s so overcome that she forgets to accept his proposal, so they play a game of Rock Paper Scissors to seal their engagement.

Adam narrates. He admits that he slammed the chapel doors closed, though he doesn’t tell Amelia it was him. They explore the ground floor of the chapel, finding a note left for the three of them by unnamed persons. In discussing the note, Amelia says that she has no idea who the housekeeper is who donated the chapel for the weekend. They light the big fireplace, and the chapel begins to warm up.

Adam realizes that Amelia is deceiving him:

I saw her remove my mobile from the glove compartment before we left home this morning. I always put it there for long journeys—I feel nauseous if I look at screens in cars or taxis—and she knows that. I watched her take it out and put it back in the house. Then I listen to her lie about it all the way here. Having been married for so long, I know better than to think that my wife doesn’t have some secrets—I certainly do—but I have never known her to behave this way. I don't have to see her face to know when she isn’t telling me the truth. You can feel it when someone you love is lying. What I don't know, yet, is why (26).

Amelia takes over the narration, immediately commenting on how strangely Adam is behaving. Because the storm has cut them off from other available food sources, she searches the kitchen for food. She only finds two place settings. Adam surprises her when he opens an anteroom door, revealing a long hallway and a massive freezer filled with individually wrapped frozen dinners. Amelia notices that the stone floor is partially made of old tombstones. Adam says that he also found a wine cellar under a wooden trap door. This piques Amelia’s anxiety.

Amelia expresses some of her own backstory in this chapter. Her parents were killed in an auto accident on the way to the hospital for her birth. A doctor saw the accident, delivered her, and named her Amelia after Amelia Earhart. Amelia says, “She liked to fly away too” (29).

This chapter is the letter to Adam from his wife on their first anniversary. He’d forgotten, saying that since they married on leap day, it was three more years until their first anniversary. She’d learned origami and, as a gift, gave Adam an origami crane. She notes that first anniversary gifts should be paper.

At the time, they’re financially strapped from Adam’s lack of work. She tells Adam that the agent of Henry Winters—an older, prolific author who is Adam’s favorite—has died and suggests that Adam might turn one of Henry’s novels into a screenplay.

She leaves so that Adam can work alone. When she returns, he tells her that his agent summoned him to a meeting with Henry. After the meeting, his agent calls Adam again to say Henry wants Adam to do the screenplay of Henry’s first book, The Doppelgänger. Adam sets up a celebratory meal with her. Although she rejoices with him, she feels regret because she’s secretly intervened with Henry on Adam’s behalf. She says, “I worry that if you knew Henry Winter only trusted you with his book because of me, it might be the end of us” (40).

Amelia narrates. As she waits in the hallway above, Adam descends to the wine crypt in the chapel and returns with a bottle of red wine that turns out to be quite good. After the meal and the wine, as they sit before the fire, Amelia feels affectionate toward Adam and starts to reach for his hand before stopping herself: “My fingers walk toward Adam’s—I can’t remember the last time we touched each other—but my hand stopped short, as if scared of getting burned. Affection is like playing the piano and you can forget how to do it without practice” (42).

Adam watches Amelia silently. She knows that he knows this is a make-or-break weekend for their marriage, however: “What he doesn’t know, is that if things don’t go according to plan, only one of us will be going home” (43).

The narrative reverts to Adam, who has been watching Amelia’s hand hover near his. He feels disappointed when she pulls away. He aches for something to work on to distract himself. Like Amelia, he has a secret intention for this weekend. He muses about work, and Amelia confronts him, reminding him of his commitment not to work. With nothing else to distract him, he removes the origami crane from his billfold. When he reflects about it nostalgically, she snatches it and tosses it into the fire. Adam rescues it. This act convinces him to follow through on his secret intention. He says, “If I wasn’t sure before I am now, and I’m counting down the hours until this is over once and for all” (47).

In this third letter, Adam’s wife commemorates their second anniversary. She congratulates him on his successful screenplay adaptation but laments his absorption into his work:

The Hollywood studio who bought it at auction paid more for those 120 pages than I could earn in ten years. It was amazing, and I'm so happy for you, but so sad for us because now we see even less of each other than we used to. You don't seem to need me or my input into your work as much at all now. But I understand. I really do (48).

The letter describes the day that Adam took her to a broken-down two-story house in the Hampstead Village section of London that he purchased for them to renovate. She ends the letter by saying that she couldn’t imagine being luckier.

Amelia apologizes for throwing the crane into the fire but complains that Adam is emotionally detached from their relationship. To her surprise, he holds her and kisses her. She responds by saying:

I feel my cheeks blush, as though I've been kissed by a stranger, not my husband. I've gotten good at feeling guilty for doing what's best for me. And guilt is one of those emotions that rarely comes with an off switch. Sometimes I feel like I need to check out of life the way other people check out of hotels. Sign whatever I need to sign, hand back the keys to the life I'm living, and find somewhere new. Somewhere safe. But maybe there is something worth staying for (54).

They decide to go to bed early. As Amelia enters the kitchen to retrieve the wine, she sees a face outside looking through the stained-glass window and screams.

Adam rushes into kitchen. Amelia cuts her finger on the broken glass of the bottle, which she has dropped. Adam puts his arms around her to calm her. The scent of her hair reminds him when of when they first met. He judged her to have inner beauty. Adam says, “I've always trusted my gut when it comes to people and I'm rarely wrong. I can tell whether someone is good or bad within a couple of minutes of meeting them, and time and life tend to prove me right. Almost always” (57).

When Adam opens the pantry door to grab the broom and dustpan, Amelia asks how he knew it was there. Amelia tries to call the housekeeper but can’t get any cell signal. Bob growls at the boot room door. Adam puts on his coat to go outside with Bob. Opening the door, Adam sees several faces looking back at him.

This chapter is a letter from Adam’s wife celebrating their third anniversary. It recounts how they spent it at a film industry party near the Tower Bridge overlooking the Thames River. Although she loves these events, Adam hates them. She writes:

Gatherings of more than a handful of people are problematic when you can’t recognize a single face. So a fancy film industry party at Tower Bridge, with hundreds of pretentious people who all think you should know who they are, must be like walking blindfolded into an ego filled minefield (60-61).

He keeps her close so that she can tell him who is nearby. Adam wants to speak to Henry Winter about adapting another of his books. She tells Adam that she never saw Henry even though she sees him several times looking toward them. They leave the party early and make love on their staircase, a romantic first.

Adam opens the door to find a flock of sheep just outside. Amelia secretly believes that a person looked in at her as well and that someone is spying on them. She reflects on Adam’s upbringing in a council estate. She feels that she doesn’t belong in their current affluent neighborhood. Amelia says:

Not that I have anything against social climbers—I’ve always found the higher you climb in life the better the view. But sometimes his success makes me feel like a failure. Adam is the real deal these days, whereas I’m more of a first draft, a work in progress (68).

She finds Adam’s gentle kiss on her forehead, which was meant to assure her, condescending.

The narrative shifts to third person, present tense and introduces Robin, a middle-aged, single woman who lives in the chapel’s former manse. She sees Amelia and Adam arrive and spies on them. Robin voices surprise that they chanced the trip to Blackwater Chapel, especially in inclement weather. When Amelia sees her looking in the window, Robin runs away.

Robin notes that the visitors seem unafraid. She thinks:

They didn’t look scared at all. She wondered if it was because they were together. The world can seem less frightening when you don’t have to face it alone […]. Watching the couple start to relax inside the chapel, she knew that they had made poor choices too. And coming here was probably top of the list (72).

This is another cliff-hanger chapter. Because Amelia dropped the wine bottle, Adam says that it’s her turn to go to the wine crypt. The flashlight’s batteries are spent, so she must walk down the steps in the darkness to turn on the florescent light in the wine cellar. Everything about the crypt is frightening or disgusting. Just as she locates a wine bottle, the power goes out and the trap door slams shut.