Flashlight

One night, Louisa and her father Serk descend from their rental house in Japan to walk along the beach. Louisa’s father is grateful to Louisa’s mother for teaching Louisa to swim since he cannot swim. Louisa should at least act grateful to her mother until she can learn to feel it with sincerity. That comment is the last thing Louisa remembers her father saying. That night, he disappears.

Years later, Louisa lives with her mother in Los Angeles, California. While trying to sleep, Louisa orders her mother, who is sitting outside the room in a wheelchair, to close her bedroom door. Even though Louisa is afraid of the dark, she wants to hurt her mother’s feelings by dismissing her. She doesn’t believe her mother’s disability is real.

Earlier that morning, Louisa’s aunt took her to a child psychologist named Dr. Brickner under the pretense of assessing her grade level. Instead of playing with the toys in the office, Louisa asked to play with Dr. Brickner’s flashlight. The flashlight reminded her of the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which she asserted was not a science fiction film because its realistic quality made the speculative elements feel real too.