The hall rustled with expectant whispers. Terri clasped her clipboard to her breast and Peter watched her for a while. Despite her methods, she took genuine pleasure in the joy she was about to offer. And somehow, it felt wrong choosing not to see the hope she so desperately wanted to gift her people. What a joy it was that the world her generation had only ever been able to describe to their children in bedtime stories had finally become real. So, when she briefly looked his way, Peter found that he was powerless to deny her. He smiled. Terri held his gaze a moment and smiled back. The last fifteen years were finally coming to an end. She looked to the double doors at the back of the hall just as they flung open.

Everyone took to their feet. Chairs scraped violently across the floor. Whispers erupted into excitable chatter and before Peter knew it, the circle had emptied as everyone moved to gather around a trolley stacked tall with giant rectangular boxes. There was a television for every household, Terri told them all. And soon, the boxes were unloaded and passed out and hands were shaken and backs were patted and Teddy set the last of his donut down on the chair and turned back to Peter, both his cheeks flushed and burning.

“Don’t let Cooper make you feel bad about wanting to be here, Peter,” he said, moving through the crowd. “This is your time now.”

Peter nodded, suddenly unsure how to take that, but not wanting to spoil Teddy’s fun any more than he wanted to spoil Terri’s. So he urged Teddy to go bag himself a television like he was right behind him.

After a while, the sheriff slowly started to guide people to the stand so that they could begin conversations about the loans they were being offered. Terri noticed that the old man in the Stetson was still in his chair. She quietly squeezed through the crowd, making her apologies as she went, and crouched down before him with one hand soft across his knee. The old man’s eyes retreated beneath the heavy folds of his eyelids. Then the rest of him disappeared beneath the brim of his hat. But Terri stroked his knee to calm him and gently prized the envelope from his fist.