Chapter 15: The Last Line

Nobody in the theater moved.

Then Camille laughed, high and delighted.

"Everyone, I'm so sorry," she said. "This is my stepsister. She's been very unwell. We love her very much."

"Security," someone whispered in the back.

I walked down the center aisle.

I did not hurry.

"You said ferry," I said to Camille, loud enough for the microphones to take it. "A minute ago. You said everyone expects the ferry."

Her smile stayed on.

"That's an expression..."

"Nobody outside this room has read a ferry. The film doesn't have one. Mason has never seen those pages."

I stopped at the foot of the stage steps.

"You read them," I said. "You read them at my kitchen table, and then you tore them out."

"That's absurd."

"Let her speak," my stepfather said.

He had not raised his voice.

He had stood up in the front row, and the whole theater could see it.

The moderator looked at him, then at Mason, then at the cameras pointed at all of us.

"Ms. Mercer," she said slowly. "If you wrote it, tell us."

Mason rose and held out his hand.

I took it, and he pulled me up the steps.

His fingers were warm, and he let go of mine as gently as he'd taken them.

The moderator handed me her microphone.

The lights were hot on my face.

I could see Roz in the dark, sitting up straight, with her glasses already in her hand.

I could not see Lance, because I did not look.

"The last scene is the pier," I said.

My voice shook once and steadied.

"The wife has a suitcase and a ticket on the evening ferry. It's the one ticket she has ever bought for herself."

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