Harper checked the clock. Seven exactly. They had only one evening left, and darkness was essential for the shadows. Without an extension from inside the bakery, the rehearsal would stop.
Tamsin shook her head. ‘The baking ovens use the circuits inside. I can’t promise anything while we’re finishing tomorrow’s bread.’
Kieran looked up at the unlit white cloth. ‘Maybe we don’t need those lamps.’
‘What do you mean?’ Harper asked.
‘Give me five minutes.’
He went to his backpack and returned with a small rechargeable work light, the kind mechanics used under hoods. When he placed it behind the screen, a building appeared sharply against the fabric. Sachi turned her own flashlight on, creating a second silhouette. The children found two more lights among their bags. They moved the city by hand and watched the shadows glide.
The effect was rough, but unexpectedly intimate. Everyone could see the performers’ hands through the gaps. It made the show’s new ending possible in a way their old design never had.
‘Keep the work lights,’ Nell said. ‘We can bring batteries tomorrow.’
Harper made a note. For the first time that day, she felt the pleasure of solving a problem without trying to control everything that followed.
CHAPTER SEVEN: THE OFFER
Saturday began with the sound of a hammer striking the wrong side of a nail.
Harper arrived at the courtyard shortly after eight and found Victor Dane trying to secure a folding table that did not need securing. Chloe stood beside him with a look of patient suffering. Kieran was checking the frames; Sachi and Nell were laying out the figures in order. Odessa had brought a roll of tape, two containers of fruit, and the receipt for the pool-cleaning bill. She handed Harper the receipt without an audience.
‘Caleb said you paid him directly,’ Harper said.
‘I did. He told me the amount you still owed. I also bought a new skimmer basket.’
‘You weren’t asked to replace the basket.’
‘He said it was worn out. I thought it might help.’
Harper nodded, then looked at the old woman’s hands. Odessa had been twisting a loose thread on her cardigan.
‘You can help us hang the audience signs,’ Harper said.
‘I thought you’d never ask.’
‘Not the stage signs. Just directions and accessibility information.’
Odessa accepted the distinction. Later, when Nell asked her grandmother to move a sign, Odessa checked where it should go before touching it.
By ten, the courtyard hummed with activity. The children had been assigned tasks, but they reassigned themselves when needed. Ari and Ben repaired a wheel beneath the giant door. Milo discovered that one of the cardboard citizens had been cut in reverse, and Chloe turned the error into a joke in which a man entered the city walking backward. Sachi placed the new scene between two quiet moments, giving the audience time to laugh without losing the story.
