A Midsummer Night's Scream

and told one of his assistants to go pick up the bungling burglar. Both of them had a good laugh over this.
    He was still chuckling to himself when he arrived backstage after the last scene and heard Ms.
    Chance threatening Professor Imry. He waited in the hall until she’d gone, then went into Imry’s office.
    “I have something important to tell you. You better sit back down,“ Mel said.
    “Okay. I guess it’s that you’re going to arrest me for murdering Denny, which I did not do! That’s the way my day’s gone. Are prisoners allowed to take their laptops into a jail cell?“
    Mel had to suppress a smile. Imry had been inadvertently funny, probably for the first time in his life.
    “I’m not arresting you,“ he said. “But I do have bad news for you.“
    Imry ran his hands through his hair. “Hit me with it.“
    “Understand, Imry, this is absolutely confidential. I’m only telling you this because I feel you need to know—but you have to agree not to mention it to anyone, not even obliquely.“
    “Okay. I’ll pretend we never spoke of this.“
    Mel told him what he’d come to warn Imry about, and Imry turned so white and pasty that Mel feared he was going to faint.
    So Mel added, “But I have a suggestion for how to solve the problem you’re going to have.“
    Shelley was desperately anxious to get home before any of the food spoiled. She hauled in all the leftovers and put them on Jane’s kitchen counter.
    “You pick what you and your kids most want, then I choose something, then you take another turn.“
    “Shelley, that’s insane. You paid for all of it. You take everything you want. Just leave us whatever is left. By the way, is tonight’s catering service on your list to provide meals for Paul’s dinners?“
    “Absolutely. They were fabulous. It’s sort of discouraging that out of the ten I tried out, only two made the grade. I was hoping that at least three or four would be acceptable.“
    “Poor Professor Imry,“ Jane said out of the blue. “Having to rewrite the whole last scene overnight.“
    “I don’t see how you can feel so sorry for him.“ Shelley was outraged. “He was simply too arrogant about his work to do the ending right. Or maybe too lazy. Or incompetent. I’ll bet you good money he’s never opened the first page of a good mystery book.“
    “Shelley, I’m seeing this from a different view. If I’d messed up an ending and had to fix it overnight, I’d probably just go to bed and hope for the best.“
    “No, you wouldn’t,“ Shelley said. “You’d fix it.“
    “I guess I would. Now let’s sort out this food choice thing. My kids will eat anything. Except that none of us likes caviar. Does that help?“

    * * *

    Steven Imry was still fixing the script as dawn broke on Friday. Now there was no murder, just a threat of one. And the younger brother didn’t die. He just ran off with Angeline. After which his older brother Todd, now played by Norman Engel, admitted he was relieved. Imry knew, deep in heart, that this wasn’t the best ending. But hoped it would satisfy the horrible Ms. Chance, her investors, and the audience. It was at least upbeat.
    Best of all, only two of the actors had to learn new lines before tonight. Norman and Jake Stanton, both of whom were fast studies.
    He printed out several copies of the new ending of the script, and paced around until eight in the morning, when he called both the actors involved in the changed script to tell them to meet him at the theater at nine promptly. Meanwhile, he’d have to contact the rest of the cast to tell them about the changes, so they wouldn’t be surprised at the last minute.
    At least he hadn’t been forced to fix the script in a jail cell.

Twenty-five

    At a quarter after ten Friday morning, Ms. Bunting called Jane and said, “I hope I didn’t interrupt your writing. I meant to call Shelley, but I’ve lost track of her telephone number.“
    “Here’s her phone number,“ Jane said, rattling it off. “You didn’t interrupt anything. I was just catching up on laundry. What’s up?“
    “I’ve finished my needlepoint project and called the shop to see if they’d finish it as a pillow.“
    “I think Shelley has finished hers as well. I’m not quite done with mine, though.“
    Ms. Bunting said, “When I talked to Martha, I asked her if she could show me this basket-weave stitch so I can start a new project. She said she’d be free at one o’clock to teach all three of