I carefully got up and made my way down the aisle, never taking my eyes off her as she slipped out the exit doors. I had two options. Option One—I could follow her into the lobby and take the chance of her making a scene. Option Two—I could intercept her somewhere out of the way before she made her move to take down Booth. Option One was easier, but I really didn’t want to have to redo this simulation for the sixth time, so Option Two it was.

I slipped out the side door and into one of the theater’s many hallways. It felt narrow and dark with its thick velvet draperies and busy wallpaper. Suddenly there was a noise to my left, and I saw a flash of blue skirts. Turning, I walked quickly in that direction. I’d have liked to run, but running wasn’t something a lady did in a gigantic dress and ridiculous shoes that pinched. I had to blend in on the off chance that someone noticed me. Rounding the corner, I hurried up the narrow stairs toward the second floor. My lungs fought to expand inside the stupidly tight dress as I looked left and right down the empty hallway. To my left I could see the curtain that hid the president from view. According to my watch, I was minutes away from John Wilkes Booth coming up the same staircase I’d just used, gun in hand. I felt my first flutter of panic in my chest. Where had she gone? Should I go back down to the theater and risk missing her or stay where I was and hope I saw Booth before she did?

As I stood there, frozen, trying to decide which was the right answer, I heard a small sound directly behind me. It was the sound of someone unwrapping something covered in plastic. Plastic, a material that wouldn’t be widely used until the 1960s. I whirled and saw the curtain behind me quiver just as the sound of booted feet on the stairs came from below. John Wilkes Booth was on his way up. Without stopping to think, I threw myself behind the curtain and wrapped my arm around the startled woman’s neck. She let out a muffled gargle, and I saw the long lethal-looking syringe in her hand. She stumbled sideways, throwing us out into the open, and I fought to keep my balance without losing my grip.