Chapter 24: The Main Character

At seven forty-five that night, the crew house was so full that people sat on the stairs.

The producer had borrowed a projector from the company, and he pointed it at the white wall above the stove.

My mother had made two more casseroles and put one on the table without saying what was in it.

Half the neighborhood had come, along with the cameraman's wife and the dog's vet.

A man from the harbor stood by the door and said he had no idea why he was there.

"Sit," Sunna said.

She pushed me down onto the couch between her and my mother.

"I can't sit. I'm going to throw up."

"Then throw up sitting. Eat some bread."

My mother put a slice of bread in my hand and kept her hand on top of it.

At eight o'clock exactly, the wall went dark.

Someone said "shh," and the room obeyed.

The title came up in plain white letters on black.

It said "Winter Coast, with Emmett Quill," and under it, in smaller type, "Written, shot and hosted by Emmett Quill."

I hadn't known they would put it like that.

Everyone in the room turned to look at me, and I looked at the stove.

"It's just a credit," I said.

"It is a very good credit," Sunna said.

The picture opened on a barn door at dawn.

It was a big gray door with iron hinges, sitting at the edge of a snow field, and behind it I could see the sea.

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