Chapter 24: Right Name

The London usher was a boy of about nineteen with a lanyard and a scanner.

He took my phone and tapped it, and I held my breath out of habit.

Behind me Nan stood with her purse on her arm.

Behind her stood nine people from a veterinary clinic in Ohio, in coats too thin for English weather.

The boy scrolled down the guest list.

He did not have to scroll far.

"Wingate," he said. "Louisa. That's the first line."

"That's me."

"And Wingate, Maggie."

"That's me too," Nan said. "Be a dear and hurry. I've been waiting for this since Columbus."

He held the scanner to my pass.

The light went green.

Nobody said a word to me about it.

Nobody asked who I was, or where my name had gone, or whether I had made a mistake.

I walked through the gate with my grandmother on my arm and my coworkers behind me.

I did not stop shaking until we reached row eight.

It was on the aisle.

My name was on the seat in black marker, and Nan's name was on the one beside it.

The arena filled up around us.

Fourteen thousand people came in and found their places, and some of them turned to look.

A girl with braids two rows ahead lifted her phone and mouthed something.

*Thank you.*

I didn't know what for.

I nodded anyway.

The lights went down, and Eli walked out alone.

He stood at the microphone in his gray cap and worn jeans.

For a moment he only looked at the room.

He found row eight.

He did not wave, or smile for the cameras, or say anything about me.

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