Delia gave up on returning her teammates’ texts and opened Delia’s Den, the app she’d created when she was ten after burning through the free learn-to-code programs online and the ones available from the library. It began as a way to test what she’d learned and had continued as a sort of meditation. Tweaking and expanding the code and what she could create with it was as comforting as snuggling up with Smudge—more so sometimes. That dog was wiry.

“Dee!” Cassie said in Delia’s ear, causing her to jump and nearly knock over the lighting board.

“Shh!” Delia held her finger to her lips. “Mom’s almost done.”

“I’ve seen this a dozen times, you don’t think I know that? But Dee Dee, that’s the problem. Her daughter’s having a real intimate moment with a trash can.”

“Her . . . what?”

“Let’s just say the sun ain’t shining for Little Orphan Annie.”

Delia sighed. The play wasn’t Annie. Cassie just liked to speak in riddles sometimes. All the time.

“Stage fright or Uncle Barry’s Fried Bonanza, but either way she’s not going to be hurling anything this audience wants to see.”

“Understudy?” Delia said, knowing the odds were slim. Graduation was only last week, and school hadn’t ended yet for most of the regular summer theater kids.

“Not cast yet. But your dad said you know the part.”

Of course she did. Delia had a photographic memory and ran lines with her mom for every production—at home from the comfort of their floral couch, in front of their greyhound.

Delia caught sight of her father, preparing to stealthily change out the scenery behind her mom. He built every set piece himself by hand, had been doing it since her parents took over the production company when Delia was a toddler. He nodded to her, and Delia flicked another switch, moving her mom’s light to the far corner of the stage.

It was almost time for her stage daughter’s entrance. Delia couldn’t let her parents down. The theater had been struggling over the past couple of years, ever since the giant fair that attracted tourists had downsized. The deposit at the local college Delia had insisted was her first choice was less than everywhere else Delia had applied but still more than they could really afford. Tonight the theater was only half full, and word of a snafu so early in the run would have a snowball effect.