‘But those were ours,’ Nell said.

‘I know.’

‘You weren’t supposed to use them either.’

The older woman’s face contracted with shame. This was the accusation that finally silenced her.

Nell bent to retrieve the purple-footed bird. ‘You both keep saying you’re helping us. What if you just come tomorrow and listen?’

Harper and Odessa exchanged a look. Neither smiled.

‘All right,’ Harper said.

CHAPTER FOUR: THE LIBRARY FLOOR

Eleven children arrived at the library the next afternoon. They did not sit at the tables Harper had reserved. They spread themselves on the carpet between the history shelves and the picture-book corner, creating a circle with their backpacks. They had brought pieces of their show in shopping bags and instrument cases: a collapsed cardboard moon, a miniature ladder, a bundle of shadow puppets, and a small tin filled with wooden buttons.

Harper sat on the floor with them. Odessa sat in a chair close enough to hear but far enough to keep the children in charge.

Nell announced that everyone would speak once before anyone spoke twice. Milo volunteered to keep track with the tin buttons. Sachi was elected to read the new ending. The Ortiz brothers claimed the job of demonstrating movement, although their dragon’s jaw had lost a hinge.

For twenty minutes, Harper heard the story she thought she knew become something better. The city was not saved by a heroic bird. It learned to listen only after every citizen tried to tell the bird what to do and the bird refused to sing. Each person had to stop, watch, and ask what the other needed. In the finale, all the citizens moved a giant cardboard door together, making a path wide enough for anyone to enter.

It was so simple that Harper felt embarrassed by the old ending she had helped devise. She had spent days arguing with adults about whose child would be the hero. The children had removed the hero entirely.

When they finished, Milo placed a button in front of Harper. ‘Your turn.’

‘I think it’s a stronger ending,’ she said. ‘And I think I owe all of you an apology.’

‘We know,’ Sachi answered, not unkindly.

Harper told them about the release she had signed and about seeing their work at the icehouse. She said Brightline could use the sets as far as she understood, but no one had to accept that as the only future for their story.

‘Can we make them stop?’ asked Ari Ortiz.

‘I don’t know,’ Harper answered. ‘I won’t promise something I can’t do.’

‘Could we perform ours somewhere else?’ Nell asked.

‘Yes, if we find a safe place and enough people willing to help.’