Behind Closed Doors

Jack and Grace are on their honeymoon in Thailand and Jack is about to recount the story he promised to tell her. He begins to discuss a “‘young boy who lived in a country far, far away from here with his mother and father’” (97). The boy was afraid of his father, who was very abusive towards the mother, whom the boy loved. However, he realized that the mother was weak and could not protect him from his father. The boy started to appreciate the fear in her eyes when his father took her down to the basement, where he locked her in with the rats. The boy began to love the sounds of her fearful cries coming from the basement, and when his father left him to watch his mother, he began to lock her in their cellar, as well. When he was 13, the mother tried to run away and the boy beat her to death. The boy blamed it on his father, who then went to prison for murder.

When he became an adult, this boy began to want someone just like his mother to torment, and whose fear he could feed off of. While he waited, he became a prosecuting attorney specializing in battered women’s cases. Then he found Grace. Grace shivers, not wanting to believe that Jack was the boy in the story, but knowing it must be true. She asks if she can leave and he goes back on his promise, taking the time to reveal more about himself: that Jack Angel isn’t his real name, sex repulses him, and that Millie is the one he truly wants. It is the manifestation of pure fear that excites him, and Millie’s fear will be the purest.

When Grace tries to leave the room, he tells her the door is locked. She bangs on it, and he says that she might as well keep doing it because “‘it lays the foundation for [her] madness’” (101). After cutting the phone cord, he leaves the room. She does her best to try to get out of the room, banging on the door and the wall. Checking her bag for nail scissors or tweezers, Grace realizes that Jack has taken everything, even her lipstick. She eventually tires and falls asleep.

By the time she wakes up, it’s evening. This time, she tries turning the door handle. The door is actually unlocked. Fearful of seeing Jack in the hall, Grace eventually makes it down to reception, her bag in hand. She asks the receptionist, Kiko, if she could please telephone the British Embassy. She tells the receptionist that her husband has taken her passport and purse, and now she is unable to get back to England. The receptionist says she needs to speak with her manager. The manager, Mr. Ho, makes a quick phone call and tells her that it is all being taken care of.

Jack suddenly appears right behind her. When Grace accuses him of taking her things, he suggests that she check her bag. Her passport, wallet, phone, and make-up bag are inside, as well as a pill bottle she has never seen. She says that Jack must have put them back in her bag while she was sleeping. However, Jack suggests that she forgot to take her pills. After she insists that the police should be called, Jack insinuates that she has forgotten to take this medication before with similar, embarrassing results. Acting exasperated, he tells Kiko that she might as well go up with his wife to get her suitcase so that she can go to the airport because she is implacable.

Kiko takes Grace up to their room; Grace asks her to wait while she changes. When she tries to exit the bathroom, Jack pushes her back in. He tells her that the scene she caused has made her look unstable. In fact, the manager is already writing an account of her behavior that will remain on file at the hotel. Jack threatens to kill her and then bring Millie to live with him. With no one to protect Millie, she will suffer more. In addition, any time Grace rebels, Millie will always be the one to pay, as Grace will be prevented from visiting her. Though Jack claims that Grace will try to escape again, she resolves to wait until they get back to England, when her chances will be better.

The couple is on the way to Millie’s school to meet with Mrs. Goodrich. Grace hasn’t eaten since lunch the previous day. Though she was enormously hungry during lunch, she couldn’t finish her dessert because Jack said he was painting Millie’s room red when her favorite color is yellow, and it made her lose her appetite. Jack hates Grace to waste food and he is irritated.

When they arrive at the school, they meet Mrs. Goodrich in her office. Janice, Millie’s caregiver, is sitting in. They learn that Millie has been having difficulty falling asleep and that they would like to give her sleeping pills. The couple agrees with the course of action. Mrs. Goodrich wonders why Millie might be having trouble sleeping in the first place, thinking that perhaps it’s because Millie has not yet seen the house she will be living in. Jack says that though the room is not yet ready, they would be happy to have her come and see it. In fact, she may never want to leave. Grace, horrified, quickly states that the thought of leaving a place where Millie has lived for years might be causing her stress. Perhaps Janice can visit her at the house regularly after she settles in. This idea infuriates Jack, but it is a way for Grace to ensure that at least someone will be checking up on Millie.

When they see Millie, she again wants to go to the hotel, but Jack says he’s picked out a new place. Grace squeezes Millie’s hand, a signal that she should be careful.

After lunch, Millie asks to go to the bathroom and wants Grace to come with her. Jack says he will go, too. The bathrooms are single-use toilets, one for women, one for men. As Millie enters the restroom, a woman exits. She smiles at them and Jack grips Grace’s elbow. Grace realizes that they look like a perfect couple and that asking for help is hopeless.

It is the morning after Jack has revealed his true colors to Grace. She is still resolved to make him think that she has given up. When they go downstairs, Jack makes her smile and apologize to Mr. Ho for the previous evening’s behavior, which Grace does.

They go to the fancy hotel down the street and Jack takes Grace’s picture in front of it so that they will have some photos from their vacation to show to their friends. Upon returning to the room, Grace asks whether she can call Millie, and Jack says no. He wants everyone to think she’s having such a great time that she has forgotten about Millie. He tells her that he’s going out and that he will lock her out on the balcony so that she can get a tan. She better bring anything she wants to have with her out there, because he will likely be gone for hours. Grace spends much of the vacation barely eating, locked on the balcony for four-hour spurts of time.

Jack does sometimes take Grace out to get more pictures. One day, he rents a taxi and they do four days worth of sightseeing in an afternoon. He takes her to a private beach to get more pictures. He even takes her to dinner at a fancy restaurant. Grace is ashamed that his good looks and charming public demeanor momentarily make her forget about the monster that he is.

Jack begins to leave her in the main hotel room at night for longer and longer periods of time. Grace wonders whether Jack is out soliciting male prostitutes or participating in some other sexual practice. She has also noticed that a couple is now staying in the room next door. Grace wonders whether she should risk trying to ask them for help. From her time on the balcony, Grace has recognized that they are speaking Spanish, which she knows from her business trips to Argentina. This seems like the perfect couple to turn to.

Jack goes out late again and Grace takes a chance, knocking hard on the door to the next room. When the man opens the door, it’s Jack. He had been the Spanish-speaking man all along, and the woman she thought she heard out on the balcony was someone on the radio. He is pleased that his plan worked. As her punishment, Grace will not be able to see Millie for two weeks after they get back.

Grace describes this as “her lowest point in Thailand” because she allowed herself to fall for the trap Jack had set for her (133). She will now always fear that he is facilitating her escape, only to turn around and punish her for trying. Grace thinks about asking for help from a stewardess on their flight back, but worries about being able to keep her cool while he maintains that she’s lying and mentally unstable.

As soon as they’re on their flight, however, Grace falls asleep. She isn’t fully awake until Jack is driving her to their new house. It’s exactly like they drew it up that day at lunch, except it is secured by an enormous black gate.

The front hall is large and gorgeous, but all the doors around her are closed. Jack asks if she would like to see Molly. Grace is shocked to realize that she didn’t think about the puppy at all in Thailand. Jack takes Grace down to the basement. Before they get to a closed door, Jack hands her a plastic garbage bag, telling her that she might need it.

Grace describes how she has slowly been denied basic necessities after each of her escape attempts. Her clothes are now in another room and she has to wear her pajamas all day. When Grace asks if she can wear a dress, Jack gives her an old curtain and tells her to wear that. She makes a sort of sarong out of it and, annoyed, he takes it away.

During the afternoon, Grace hears someone ring at the gate. They then ring again. Grace wonders whether it is Esther dropping off the book she mentioned the other day.

The bell does not ring after that, and Grace meditates, something she has taught herself to do to pass the time and focus on her plan of escape. An hour or so after the bell rung, however, Jack comes to Grace’s room with a book. Grace thinks he’s going to play a game with her: give her the book and then take it away. Jack tells her that Esther brought it by for her. Normally, he would throw it away, but it came with a note inviting them to dinner on Saturday night. Esther has also written that she can’t wait to hear what Grace thinks of the book. Therefore, Grace has to read it so that she can respond at dinner.

As she’s reading, Grace notices that certain words in the book are shaded. “Alright” is the first one she notices. She goes back and finds six other words highlighted. They combine to form the question, “Is everything alright? Do you need help” (143). Grace wonders whether Esther has sent her a message through the book. Yet, she does not have the capacity to reply. Even somehow telling her new friend to get the police would be futile because Jack has convinced the local police force that Grace is mentally unstable. Even if Grace managed to shade words in the book in order to communicate with Esther, Jack would likely check the book before she brought it with her to the party.

After thinking it over, Grace realizes that Jack would have checked the book before bringing it up to her. Is Esther in danger for reaching out? Should Grace try to get a message to her at dinner? It seems impossible. Later in the night, Jack comes back to check in with how the reading is going. To buy herself more time, Grace lies and says she isn’t getting into the book.

He tells her that she better read it before they go to Esther’s house next week and leaves the room. Grace is confused about why he is so adamant. She thinks about how long it took for Jack to bring up the book after the doorbell rang, then realizes that Jack is the one who put the shading there in order to try to get her to attempt to escape, so that he can punish her.

Grace goes down into the basement to find Molly, the dog, dead on the floor. She hasn’t been dead long. Jack left the puppy enough water to survive for a while, but not for the whole two weeks that they were gone. Grace is devastated and vows to make Jack suffer in exactly the way that Molly did. She is glad that she didn’t register what he meant when he told her in Thailand that he hadn’t actually hired a housekeeper. Jack suggests that Molly should be an example of what could happen to Millie if Grace misbehaves, and then Grace would need to take Millie’s place.

Grace wonders why Jack needs Millie specifically. Jack responds that Millie is easier to scare. With Millie around, he also won’t need to go to Thailand anymore. Grace thought that Jack was going to Thailand to have sex with other men. Jack laughs. He’s not interested in sex. He goes to Thailand to observe fear: “‘There is nothing quite like it. I love how it looks, I love how it feels, I love how it smells. And I especially love the sound of it’” (148). Grace is disgusted and vows that she will get revenge on Jack.

Jack says he will dump Molly in the trash unless Grace buries her in the yard herself. She wraps Molly’s body in a black trash bag and Jack leads her out to the garden. There is already a shovel waiting in the dirt. Jack had known that he was going to leave the dog to die. Mortified, Grace digs the dog’s grave.

After Grace buries Molly, she runs behind a tree and throws up. After she is finished, Grace sees the shovel and runs toward it, raising it over her head and trying to hit Jack. He grabs it out of her hands and she dashes to the edge of the yard, screaming for help. Jack hits her in the back and she falls over. She will now not see Millie for three weeks.

After she sees her new bedroom and showers, Jack takes Grace on a tour of the house. He reveals that it took two years to perfect the house. Having owned the house before he knew her, Jack admits that when Grace described her perfect house, he steered most of her answers towards describing the features of this house. Her painting is indeed above the fireplace, but the idea that she created it with hundreds of kisses now disgusts her.

Later, he brings food up to her room and Grace uses it as another chance to try to escape. She lunges at him as he’s bringing in a tray, knocking it out of his hands and sprinting down the stairs. When she reaches the landing, she realizes that the bottom floor is in darkness. Unable to find a light switch, she hides behind a door. Jack eventually finds her, scaring her with a loud, “‘Boo’” (157). He reveals that every room has steel shutters to further disorient her in case she is able to get out of the bedroom. For punishment, Grace will now not see Millie for a month. He will tell everyone that Grace got a stomach bug in Thailand. His certainty that she will never escape makes Grace feel truly hopeless for the first time.

Jack doesn’t feed Grace for another day and she begins to get hunger pains. They give her the idea to fake appendicitis, so that Jack will have to get her medical attention and she can ask for help. Though Jack doesn’t believe Grace is in pain at first, she acts as if she is in agony. Eventually, he agrees to bring a doctor to her. However, when the doctor arrives, Jack stays in the room. She lets on that the pain might involve a gynecological issue, and the doctor asks Jack to wait in the hall.

Once Jack is outside, Grace tells the doctor that she is a prisoner in the house. The doctor only smiles, asking about her suicide attempt and history of depression. It turns out that Jack has the doctor in his pocket, as well. Grace still tries to get the doctor on her side, telling him that Jack killed his own mother. When she says it out loud, she realizes that she sounds crazy, which only makes her more hysterical. The doctor writes her a prescription for Prozac and leaves.

After her visit with the doctor, Jack begins to dictate Grace’s responses to her e-mails, and to take her calls, saying she is out or in the shower. Her pleas for help also keep her away from Millie for another week.

When they finally do go to visit Millie, Millie is different. Even though Grace brings her souvenirs and an Agatha Christie audiobook, Millie is very angry at Jack. She says that she doesn’t want to live with Jack or go with him to the hotel for lunch.

They do go to the hotel, however, and when they are finished with lunch, Millie asks Grace if she will come with her to the bathroom. Jack insists on going, too, but the women’s room is by itself down a corridor.

When Grace and Millie get into the bathroom, Millie tells Grace that Jack pushed her down the stairs at the wedding. Grace warns Millie that she shouldn’t tell anyone, not even Janice. Millie wonders whether Grace believes her. Instead, Grace asks If Millie remembers when she used to blame her imaginary friend for doing all of the bad things that she did as a kid. Perhaps she could say it was somebody else who pushed her down the stairs, even though they would both know it was Jack. After some quick thinking, Grace suggests George Clooney, which Millie pronounces “Jorj Koony.” They decide that Millie likes Jack, but not George Clooney. He is the one that pushed her, though she shouldn’t say that in public.

When they come out of the bathroom, Millie is in a much better mood. Grace tells Jack that she told Millie that now that she is married, Jack will always be in their lives. Jack thinks that this was Millie’s issue all along. When they drop Millie off at school, she says that she likes Jack, but not “Jorj Koony,” and they all laugh.