I got up and hustled toward the back, ducking low—and crashed into an actor walking down the aisle. I kept my balance, but barely, stumbling back a step. The lights came up a second later and I saw, my stomach plunging, that the person I’d crashed into was Mr. Campbell.

His eyes widened in surprise and recognition and I stepped to the side—but he moved to the same side. I moved to the opposite side, just as he did the same. It was probably only a few seconds but it felt like ages, a terrible dance we were doing, until finally he walked around me and strode down the rest of the aisle and onto the stage, announcing himself as the police inspector everyone had been talking about.

I hesitated for only a moment before I took a seat again, my heart slamming against my ribs, wishing more than anything I could just undo the last thirty seconds. Because even if I’d waited just a little longer, I might have been able to leave. But now? Now that Mr. Campbell had seen me? I had to stay. I had to stay to the end or it would be worse than if I’d never come here at all.

My only desperate thought was that maybe it would end sooner than I thought. Maybe, just maybe, there was still a way out of this.

But the play just continued. Not getting any better, somehow getting worse—it was revealed that the character who’d spent the whole time sitting in the back of the room and not talking to anyone was, in fact, the ghost of the man who’d died. (Since the character’s name was Bank Quo, I really should have picked up on this sooner.) There was a second murder, but then that character showed up as the judge at the end—and I couldn’t tell if they’d run out of actors, or if it was supposed to be a metaphor.

But by that point, I didn’t care. All I could think about, with every minute ticking by, was that while I was trapped there, watching this bad play, Stevie might be sitting alone at a restaurant.

When it finally ended—it certainly felt like we were pushing beyond two hours—the cast filed out for bows. As the lights went up, I realized with a shock that I had not been the only person who had wanted to leave—there were now more cast members than people in the audience, which made me feel embarrassed, even though I wasn’t sure for who.